Artificial intelligence models have capabilities on almost everyone’s tongue these days. It is estimated that these tools, which continue to surprise people with what they can do, can also be used in health services in the coming years.
A recent study revealed that the popular chatbot ChatGPT is pretty good at answering health questions. The study, carried out by researchers at New York University (NYU) in the USA, was published on JMIR Medical Education.
According to scientists, ChatGPT’s responses were indistinguishable from human ones.
The research team at NYU presented ten patient questions and answers to 392 people aged 18 years and older. Half of these were produced by ChatGPT, while the other half were provided by a healthcare professional. Participants were asked to guess the source of the answers. They were also asked to rate the responses using a 5-point scale divided into “totally unreliable” and “totally reliable”.
As a result, the study revealed difficulties in distinguishing between chatbot and human-generated responses. On average, around 65% of respondents said they were able to correctly identify who the answers belonged to.
The study also measured participants’ overall trust in chatbots. In the results, it was observed that the answers about health were not very reliable. Disease diagnosis and treatment recommendations were also the least trusted category. The highest confidence rate was in questions such as scheduling an appointment.
The researchers say the findings provide insight into the potential of chatbots in the healthcare space in the future. However, they also stress that more research is needed. It would not be right to conclude that chatbots will be used in the field of health with a single research. As it is known, artificial intelligence tools can often produce false information and cause experts to worry.
We have seen a previous study on the use of chatbots in the healthcare field. The study in April revealed that ChatGPT was able to provide better answers to patients’ questions than doctors.
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