Study Shows AI Chatbots Can Be Dangerous for Health Advice
The research, conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, found that using AI for medical decision-making poses risks due to its “tendency to provide inaccurate and inconsistent information.”
Rebecca Payne, a co-author of the study and a general practitioner, said, “Despite all the hype, AI just isn’t ready to take on the role of the physician.” She added, “Patients need to be aware that asking a large language model about their symptoms can be dangerous, giving wrong diagnoses and failing to recognize when urgent help is needed.”
In the study, nearly 1,300 participants were asked to determine possible health conditions and suggest next steps in different scenarios. Some used large language model software to obtain potential diagnoses, while others consulted a GP or used traditional methods.
Researchers found that AI often produced a “mix of good and bad information” that users had difficulty distinguishing. While chatbots “excel at standardized tests of medical knowledge,” the study concluded that their real-world application “would pose risks to real users seeking help with their own medical symptoms.”
Lead author Andrew Bean noted that interacting effectively with humans remains “a challenge” even for top AI systems and expressed hope that the findings would guide safer development of such tools.
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