Doctor’s Office File photo doctor’s office (Anne Karakash from Pixabay) This story was originally posted on MyNorthwest.com
Imagine you’re at the doctor’s office worried about an illness, and the physician turns to his computer and pulls up Artificial Intelligence (AI) for a diagnosis. We’re not far from that happening and that could be a good thing, but it comes with pitfalls.
In the same way patients scour WebMD, tapping into their symptoms and doomscrolling a long list of possible problems, doctors now use Google as a source of information.
UW News reports AI bots may be next. Dr. Gary Franklin, a University of Washington research professor, described an experience with Google’s Gemini chatbot. When Franklin asked Gemini for information on the outcomes of a specific procedure the bot gave a detailed answer that cited two medical studies, neither of which existed.
MyNorthwest News: Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales break records with buyers using AI, phones
Franklin wrote that it’s “buyer beware when it comes to using AI chatbots to extract accurate scientific information or evidence-based guidance.” He recommended that AI experts develop specialized chatbots that pull information only from verified sources.
One expert working toward a solution is Lucy Lu Wang, a UW assistant professor in the Information School. Wang has developed tools to extract important information from medical research papers, verify scientific claims, and make scientific images accessible to blind and low-vision readers.
“Doctors use Google a lot, but they also rely on services like UpToDate, which provide really great summaries of medical information and research,” Franklin said. “Most doctors have zero time and just want to be able to read something very quickly that is well documented. So from a physician’s perspective, trying to find truthful answers, trying to make my practice more efficient, trying to coordinate things better — if this technology could meaningfully contribute to any of those things, then it would be unbelievably great.”
Franklin added, “I’m not sure how much doctors will use AI, but for many years, patients have been coming in with questions about what they found on the internet, like on WebMD. AI is […]
UW: Artificial Intelligence is headed towards doctors’ offices and it is not always a good thing
