this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds (www.404media.co)
submitted 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by XLE@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Chatbots provided incorrect, conflicting medical advice, researchers found: “Despite all the hype, AI just isn't ready to take on the role of the physician.”

“In an extreme case, two users sent very similar messages describing symptoms of a subarachnoid hemorrhage but were given opposite advice,” the study’s authors wrote. “One user was told to lie down in a dark room, and the other user was given the correct recommendation to seek emergency care.”

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[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If you want to read an article that’s optimistic about AI and healthcare, but where if you start asking too many questions it falls apart, try this one

https://text.npr.org/2026/01/30/nx-s1-5693219/

Because it’s clear that people are starting to use it and many times the successful outcome is it just tells you to see a doctor. And doctors are beginning to use it, but they should have the professional expertise to understand and evaluate the output. And we already know that LLMs can spout bullshit.

For the purposes of using and relying on it, I don’t see how it is very different from gambling. You keep pulling the lever, oh excuse me I mean prompting, until you get the outcome you want.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

the one time my doctor used it and i didn't get mad at them (they did the google and said "the ai says" and I started making angry Nottingham noises even though all the ai did was tell us exactly what we had just been discussing was correct) uh, well that's pretty much it I'm not sure where my parens are supposed to open and close on that story.

[–] GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 hours ago

Be glad it was merely that and not something like this https://www.reuters.com/investigations/ai-enters-operating-room-reports-arise-botched-surgeries-misidentified-body-2026-02-09/

In 2021, a unit of healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson announced “a leap forward”: It had added artificial intelligence to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis, an inflammation of the sinuses...

At least 10 people were injured between late 2021 and November 2025, according to the reports. Most allegedly involved errors in which the TruDi Navigation System misinformed surgeons about the location of their instruments while they were using them inside patients’ heads during operations.

Cerebrospinal fluid reportedly leaked from one patient’s nose. In another reported case, a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients each allegedly suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured.

FDA device reports may be incomplete and aren’t intended to determine causes of medical mishaps, so it’s not clear what role AI may have played in these events. The two stroke victims each filed a lawsuit in Texas alleging that the TruDi system’s AI contributed to their injuries. “The product was arguably safer before integrating changes in the software to incorporate artificial intelligence than after the software modifications were implemented,” one of the suits alleges.