It is Sunday evening, the arm itches inexplicably violently and for hours. The doctor’s office doesn’t open until tomorrow, so the smartphone has to help. But not Dr. Google is interviewed, because it cannot see the rash himself and at most make general statements.
Instead, users today also ask the AI-based chatbot “Chatgpt” for an assessment, an attached photo of the rash should help with the diagnosis.
But can Chatgpt really be a help? It depends on how to use it, the Saarland Medical Association and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) judge on SR request.
Opportunities and risks of Chatgpt for health issues
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“If you do not know exactly what you are actually looking for, you can approach the solution to the individual problem in dialogue. The models can also bring information from different sources together in a very creative way and thus generate information that you would not have found otherwise,” says Dfki expert Aljoscha Burchardt.
Bots could also ensure more accessibility by offering the expenses in different languages, on a wide variety of language levels and graphically prepared. “This is how medical laypersons or people with restrictions also have a chance.”
False diagnoses with fatal consequences
However, there are also risks – for example, the possibility of misinterpretations or hallucinations. Experts speak of hallucinations when the AI simply (false) answers.
False diagnoses can have serious effects. “Even with Dr. Google, you could be wrong in both directions, but at least you still had to deal with general search results. Here you get personal advice here, which makes it even more difficult to critically question the results,” says Burchardt.
With specific ideas about the doctor
In fact, there are already patients who come to the doctor with concrete ideas about AI generated diagnoses, among other things, Dr. Markus Strauß, President of the Saar Medical Association.
It is not uncommon for them to suffer from rare, complex diseases because their symptoms apparently agree according to Chatgpt. “The treating doctor must then bring this” felt knowledge “into harmony with the actual image of the patient’s state of health.”
AI for first orientation, doctor for diagnosis
Chatgpt can still be suitable for a first orientation – even in medicine itself, KI is finally used in the diagnosis. However, Burchardt hopes that health insurance companies or other providers offer AI models in the medium term, “where only sensible things happen with the data that I can use as a user.”
Ultimately, according to Strauß from the Saarland Medical Association, the following also applies: a doctor should always decide on a diagnosis, indication and therapy. Specifically means: the AI cannot replace the way to the doctor.
