Large numbers of Americans are increasingly using ChatGPT as a substitute source for medical guidance, with roughly 40 million people saying they turn to the tool for health-related information, according to new findings cited by OpenAI and reported by Axios. The report indicates that health questions now account for more than 5 percent of all messages sent to the AI system worldwide, even though medical decisions are often highly personal and depend on individual circumstances.
The data suggests that many users rely on ChatGPT when traditional medical care is harder to access. Underserved rural areas alone generate “an average of nearly 600,000 health care-related messages every week,” and seven out of ten health-related questions are submitted outside standard office hours, Axios reports.
Beyond symptom-related concerns, users are increasingly employing the technology to navigate the financial side of health care. The report estimates that between 1.6 million and 1.9 million insurance-related searches are conducted weekly, with people seeking help to understand coverage, compare prices, identify possible overcharges, and even challenge denied claims.
Survey responses included in the report show that a majority of U.S. users have turned to ChatGPT for direct medical exploration. Among respondents, 55 percent said they had used the tool to “check or explore symptoms,” 48 percent reported using it to “understand medical terms or instructions,” and 44 percent said they relied on it to “learn about treatment options.”
The report notes that its findings focus solely on ChatGPT usage and do not account for other artificial intelligence tools, including AI-generated responses that appear at the top of Google search results.
{Matzav.com}
Why an “alarming number”?
Doctors need to up their game.
A lot of doctors are worth their weight in gold.
Yet some prove disappointing.
Many people (including myself) often feel the need to do our own research.
If doctors would truly meet the needs of their patients, patients wouldn’t feel they need to turn to AI.
Because AI can take your blood pressure and prescribe medications! that’s why we like AI better then doctors.
Although ChatGPT and AI were programmed by fake science like today’s doctors, getting medical help from ChatGPT and AI is still safer than actually going to doctors who are not to be trusted anymore blindly since 2020 when doctors murdered patients in hospitals and shot them (literally) with ‘safe & effective’ with poison.