AI Health Tips Exposed: Not Everything Online Is Safe

Artificial intelligence is fast spreading as more people feel threatened the new technology would make them obscure and push them into redundancy. Here is some unexpected news. Gradually, AI seems to be losing its prominence and significance in some aspects.

According to a study, AI chatbots including Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Meta, ChatGPT, Grok replies to queries on health and medicine are misleading and lack substance. Nearly half of the answers provided by chatbots lacked authenticity.

The researchers at Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre expressed concern that chatbots are spreading misinformation as people are using them like search engines.

The researchers in Lundquist Institute of Biomedical Innovation, associated with UCLA, who took up the study, published the results in The British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open.

As part of the study, the researchers prepared 10 questions each on subjects like cancer, vaccination, stem cells, nutrition, sports performance and questioned five chatbots. Basing on various parameters, the questions were categorized into easy, complex and highly complex.

It was found that 49.6 per cent of answers were not genuine and incoherent, 30 per cent responses were false, and 19.6 per cent was completely wrong. Of all the five chatbots used, Grok was found to be the erroneous, compared to others.

It was also found that the chatbots gave more appropriate answers to questions related to cancer and vaccination, while those relating to  nutrition, stem cells and sports performance lacked depth and substance.

It is a clear wake up call that many youngsters relying on AI chatbots even for minor health concerns should think twice. Instead of risking misinformation, it is always safer to consult a qualified doctor and get proper medical advice before small issues turn into bigger problems.