Why is medical advice from AI so dangerous?

Let’s talk about one of the most serious threats in the digital world – health misinformation originating from AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini, online search engines…

It’s no secret that we can find plenty of false advice online. But why is AI-generated advice particularly dangerous?

• It often sounds extremely convincing. Artificial intelligence generates responses that are phrased in expert language, using complex words. Sometimes it also provides non-existent links to scientific studies. This can give us a false sense that we are having a conversation with an authority figure.
• Communicating with AI is easily accessible. We may all feel reluctant to ask a doctor a ‘silly’ (in our view) question. In that case, we’re happy to ask an AI, which we can’t ‘wear out’ with our questions and concerns. After all, we’ll receive immediate, free and, what’s more, anonymous advice from an AI…
• Many people place absolute trust in technology, assuming that a state-of-the-art programme like AI – which specialists work on every day and which is constantly in the media – can do anything, and that its advice must be thoroughly verified and reliable.