- 40 million ChatGPT users ask questions about their health every day
- 200 million ChatGPT users ask AI at least once a week about health-related questions
- OpenAI says ‘AI is an ally in healthcare’
OpenAI released a report claiming that 40 million people use ChatGPT for health-related questions every day, a number that would have seemed crazy a few years ago but now seems almost inevitable.
The company describes its chatbot as a healthcare ally, saying users regularly ask questions about symptoms, medications, treatment options and how to navigate often overwhelmed healthcare systems.
The report suggests that more than five percent of all ChatGPT prompts are health-related, and 200 million of the chatbot’s 800 million weekly users ask at least one health-related prompt each week.
Most of them are people trying to figure out if a headache is serious, what a complicated diagnosis really means, or if a new prescription is supposed to make them that tired. I admit I’ve done the same thing after a nighttime spiral of indigestion, something I turned to Google for only a few years ago.
How Americans are using AI for health
OpenAI’s report asked 1,042 U.S. adults who used AI for their healthcare in the past three months exactly how they used the chatbot for health-related questions.
55% used AI to “check or explore symptoms,” 52% used a chatbot to “ask health questions at any time of the day,” 48% to “understand medical terms or instructions,” and 44% used AI to “learn about treatment options.”
According to OpenAI, these statistics show “how Americans are using AI to navigate healthcare: organizing information, translating jargon, and generating drafts they can check.”
The company highlighted the example of Ayrin Santoso of San Francisco, who “used ChatGPT to help coordinate her mother’s emergency care in Indonesia after her mother experienced sudden vision loss that her family attributed to fatigue.”
According to OpenAI, Santoso “captured the symptoms, advance counseling and context, and received a clear warning from ChatGPT that his mother’s condition could signal a hypertensive crisis and possible stroke.”
According to ChatGPT’s initial response, Santoso’s mother was hospitalized in Indonesia and has since “recovered 95% of her vision in the affected eye.”
Should we be worried?
OpenAI argues that AI can be useful outside of clinic hours, when real doctors are difficult to reach. This makes sense on paper with confusing health information, but there are serious risks, especially when you take ChatGPT’s word as gospel.
A chatbot cannot replace a doctor; he doesn’t have your complete medical history and he could still be wrong in one important way. OpenAI claims to be working with hospitals and researchers to improve accuracy and safety, but the main message is clear: millions of people have already decided that AI is part of their healthcare routine, whether we like it or not.
40 million daily users is a crazy milestone, but while it’s easy to get carried away by such a historic number, it’s worth remembering that people have been using technologies like Google for health-related queries for over a decade.
That said, Google’s top search results were once led by reliable health-related websites, like the NHS or WebMD in the UK. Now, AI previews add an element of uncertainty about AI. And even more so when we turn to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, capable of inventing the most ridiculous information.
I don’t think using AI to get quick advice on health-related matters is a bad thing, especially in countries like the US where you have to pay to see a doctor for a simple skin irritation. But how do you know that it is a simple skin irritation? And do you trust ChatGPT enough to take the risk?
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