Physicians noticed something unusual in the late 2000s: Patients were coming to appointments armed with sometimes-dubious medical information they had gleaned online from “Dr. Google,” according to Adam Rodman, an internist and AI researcher.
Today, about 68 percent of adults have turned to a search engine for medical advice in the past. But Dr. Google has a competitor. About 32 percent of adults, approximately half of those who sought advice online, turned to AI chatbots for help.
Rodman thinks such resources, used appropriately, are an overall net good. In op-eds and online courses, Rodman, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has shared advice for how to best employ Dr. Chat.
In this interview, edited for length and clarity, Rodman offers a stoplight system to figure out when it’s safe to ask a chatbot, and when you should really just ask your doctor.
How were doctors thinking about online medical information before the age of AI?
