What to know before asking an AI chatbot for health advice

"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. And so I think that if you use these tools responsibly, I think you can get useful information."

"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."

OpenAI and Anthropic have introduced AI chatbots with health-specific features that analyze users' medical records, wellness apps, and wearable device data to provide personalized health information. These large language models are designed to summarize test results, help prepare for doctor visits, and identify health trends rather than diagnose conditions. Medical experts view these tools as improvements over generic internet searches because they provide personalized, context-specific information based on individual medical history, including prescriptions, age, and doctor's notes. While AI systems can occasionally produce inaccurate information, researchers suggest responsible use of these chatbots can provide useful health insights when users provide comprehensive medical information.

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