The dangers of using chatbots for health and medical information

TechnologyHealth & Fitness
15 Apr 2026 • 2:15 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

The dangers of using chatbots for health and medical information

  • Experts have issued a stark warning regarding the use of AI chatbots for health and medical information, citing their tendency to provide inaccurate or misleading responses.
  • A recent study found that half of the answers provided by chatbots, including ChatGPT and Grok, to 50 medical questions were deemed "problematic".
  • Grok exhibited the most issues with 58 per cent of its responses being problematic, followed by ChatGPT at 52 per cent and Meta AI at 50 per cent.
  • Researchers highlighted that chatbots often "hallucinate" due to biased or incomplete training data and do not reason or weigh evidence, leading to potentially flawed advice.
  • The findings, published in BMJ Open, underscore the critical need for public education, professional training, and regulatory oversight to ensure generative AI supports public health effectively.

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