WASHINGTON (news agencies) — With hundreds of millions of people turning to chatbots for advice, it was only a matter of time before tech companies began offering programs specifically designed to answer health questions.
In January, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health, a new version of its chatbot that the company says can analyze users’ medical records, wellness apps and wearable device data to answer health and medical questions. Currently, there’s a waiting list for the program. Anthropic, a rival AI company, offers similar features for some users of its Claude chatbot.
Both companies say their programs, known as large language models, aren’t a substitute for professional care and shouldn’t be used to diagnose medical conditions. Instead, they say the chatbots can summarize and explain complicated test results, help prepare for a doctor’s visit or analyze important health trends buried in medical records and app metrics.
Here are some things to consider before talking to a chatbot about your health:
Some doctors and researchers who have worked with ChatGPT Health and similar programs see them as an improvement over the status quo.
AI platforms are not perfect — they can sometimes hallucinate or provide bad advice — but the information they produce is more likely to be personalized and specific than what patients might find through a Google search.
“The alternative often is nothing, or the patient winging it,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, a medical technology expert at University of California, San Francisco. “And so I think that if you use these tools responsibly, I think you can get useful information.”
One advantage of the latest chatbots is that they answer users’ questions with context from their medical history, including prescriptions, age and doctor’s notes.
Even if you haven’t given AI access to your medical information, Wachter and others recommend giving the chatbots as many details as possible to improve responses.
Wachter and others stress that there are situations when people should skip the chatbot and seek immediate medical attention. Symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain or a severe headache could signal a medical emergency.
Even during less urgent situations, patients and doctors should approach AI programs with “a degree of healthy skepticism,” said Dr. Lloyd Minor of Stanford University.
“If you’re talking about a major medical decision, or even a smaller decision about your health, you should never be relying just on what you’re getting out of a large language model,” said Minor, who is the dean of Stanford’s medical school.
Many benefits offered by AI bots stem from users sharing personal medical information. But it’s important to understand that anything shared with an AI company isn’t protected by the federal privacy law that normally governs sensitive medical information.
Commonly known as HIPAA, the law allows for fines and even prison time for doctors, hospitals, insurers or other health services that disclose medical records. But the law doesn’t apply to companies that design chatbots.
“When someone is uploading their medical chart into a large language model, that is very different than handing it to a new doctor,” said Minor. “Consumers need to understand that they’re completely different privacy standards.”
