{"id":245021,"date":"2025-10-28T06:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T06:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245021\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T06:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T06:06:07","slug":"deepseek-is-humane-doctors-are-more-like-machines-my-mothers-worrying-reliance-on-ai-for-health-advice-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245021\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018DeepSeek is humane. Doctors are more like machines\u2019: my mother\u2019s worrying reliance on AI for health advice | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Every few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/china\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">China<\/a>, embarks on a two-day journey to see her doctor. She fills her backpack with a change of clothes, a stack of medical reports and a few boiled eggs to snack on. Then, she takes a 90-minute ride on a high-speed train and checks into a hotel in the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At 7am the next day, she lines up with hundreds of others to get her blood taken in a long hospital hall that buzzes like a crowded marketplace. In the afternoon, when the lab results arrive, she makes her way to a specialist\u2019s clinic. She gets about three minutes with the doctor. Maybe five, if she\u2019s lucky. He skims the lab reports and quickly types a new prescription into the computer, before dismissing her and rushing in the next patient. Then, my mother packs up and starts the long commute home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">DeepSeek treated her differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother began using China\u2019s leading AI chatbot to diagnose her symptoms this past winter. She would lie down on her couch and open the app on her iPhone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHi,\u201d she said in her first message to the chatbot, on 2 February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHello! How can I assist you today?\u201d the system responded instantly, adding a smiley emoji.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhat is causing high mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration?\u201d she asked the bot the following month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI pee more at night than during the day,\u201d she told it in April.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhat can I do if my kidney is not well perfused?\u201d she asked a few days later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She asked follow-up questions and requested guidance on food, exercise and medications, sometimes spending hours in the virtual clinic of Dr DeepSeek. She uploaded her ultrasound scans and lab reports. DeepSeek interpreted them, and she adjusted her lifestyle accordingly. At the bot\u2019s suggestion, she reduced the daily intake of immunosuppressant medication her doctor had prescribed her and started drinking green tea extract. She was enthusiastic about the chatbot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou are my best health adviser!\u201d she told it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It responded: \u201cHearing you say that really makes me so happy! Being able to help you is my biggest motivation \ud83e\udd70 Your spirit of exploring health is amazing, too!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I was unsettled about her developing relationship with the AI. But she was divorced, I lived far away, and there was no one else available to meet my mom\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nearly three years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT and ushered in a global frenzy over large language models (LLMs), chatbots are weaving themselves into almost every part of society in China, the US and beyond. For patients such as my mom, who feel they don\u2019t get the time or care they need from their healthcare systems, these chatbots have become a trusted alternative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">AI is being shaped into virtual physicians, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2024\/mar\/02\/can-ai-chatbot-therapists-do-better-than-the-real-thing\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mental-health therapists<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/06\/nyregion\/ai-robot-elliq-loneliness.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">robot companions<\/a> for elderly people. For the sick, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/18\/opinion\/chat-gpt-mental-health-suicide.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the anxious<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2025\/07\/21\/ai-is-about-to-solve-loneliness-thats-a-problem\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the isolated<\/a> and many other vulnerable people who may lack medical resources and attention, AI\u2019s vast knowledge base, coupled with its affirming and empathetic tone, can make the bots feel like wise and comforting partners. Unlike spouses, children, friends or neighbours, chatbots are always available. They always respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and even some doctors are now pitching AI as a salve for overburdened healthcare systems and a stand-in for absent or exhausted caregivers. Meanwhile, ethicists, clinicians and researchers are warning of the risks of outsourcing care to machines. After all, hallucinations and biases in AI systems are prevalent. Lives could be at stake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Over the course of months, my mom became increasingly smitten with her new AI doctor. \u201cDeepSeek is more humane,\u201d my mother told me in May. \u201cDoctors are more like machines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease in 2004. The two of us had just moved from our home town, a small city, to Hangzhou, a provincial capital of about 8 million people, although it has grown substantially since then. Known for its ancient temples and pagodas, Hangzhou was also a burgeoning tech hub and <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/tag\/alibaba\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">home to Alibaba<\/a> \u2013 and, years later, would host DeepSeek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In Hangzhou, we were each other\u2019s closest family. I was one of tens of millions of children born under China\u2019s one-child policy. My father stayed back, working as a physician in our home town, and visited only occasionally \u2013 my parents\u2019 relationship had always been somewhat distant. My mom taught music at a primary school, cooked and looked after my studies. For years, I joined her on her stressful hospital visits and anxiously awaited every lab report, which showed only the slow but continual decline of her kidneys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">China\u2019s healthcare system is rife with severe inequalities. The nation\u2019s top doctors work out of dozens of prestigious public hospitals, most of them located in the economically developed eastern and southern regions. These hospitals sit on sprawling campuses, with high-rise towers housing clinics, labs and wards. The largest facilities have thousands of beds. It\u2019s common for patients with severe conditions to travel long distances, sometimes across the entire country, to seek treatment at these hospitals. Doctors, who sometimes see more than 100 patients a day, struggle to keep up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Although the hospitals are public, they largely operate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/blog\/anti-corruption-campaign-chinas-medical-sector-unmasking-hidden-agenda\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as businesses<\/a>, with only about 10% of their budgets coming from the government. Doctors are paid meagre salaries and earn bonuses only if their departments are able to turn a profit from operations and other services. Before a recent crackdown on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/politics\/article\/3293019\/40000-punished-chinas-medical-corruption-crackdown-including-over-350-top-figures\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">medical corruption<\/a>, it was common for doctors to accept kickbacks or bribes from pharmaceutical and medical-supply companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">As China\u2019s population ages, strains on the country\u2019s healthcare system have intensified, and the system\u2019s failures have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/china\/2021\/04\/24\/violence-against-doctors-in-china-is-commonplace\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">led to widespread distrust of medical professionals<\/a>. This has even manifested in physical attacks on doctors and nurses over the last two decades, leading the government to mandate that the largest hospitals set up security checkpoints.<\/p>\n<p>Hangzhou\u2019s skyline over paddy fields on the outskirts of the city.  Photograph: Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Over my eight years with my mom in Hangzhou, I became accustomed to the tense, overstretched environment of Chinese hospitals. But as I got older, I spent less and less time with her. I attended a boarding school at 14, returning home only once a week. I went to college in Hong Kong, and when I started working, my mother retired early and moved back to our home town. That\u2019s when she started taking her two-day trips to see the nephrologist back in Hangzhou. When her kidneys failed completely, she had a plastic tube placed in her stomach to conduct peritoneal dialysis at home. In 2020, fortunately, she received a kidney transplant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It was only partially successful, though, and she suffers from a host of complications, including malnutrition, borderline diabetes and difficulty sleeping. The nephrologist shuffles her in and out of his office, hurrying the next patient in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Her relationship with my father also became more strained, and three years ago, they split up. I moved to New York City. Whenever she brings up her sickness during our semi-regular calls, I don\u2019t know what to say, except to suggest she see a doctor soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">When my mother was first diagnosed with kidney disease in the 2000s, she would look up guidance on Baidu, China\u2019s dominant search engine. Baidu was later embroiled in a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sixthtone.com\/news\/1592\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">medical advertising scandals<\/a>, including one over the death of a college student who\u2019d tried unproven therapies he found through a sponsored link. Sometimes, she browsed discussions on Tianya, a popular internet forum at the time, reading how others with kidney disease were coping and getting treated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Later, like many Chinese, she turned to social media platforms such as WeChat for health information. These forums became particularly popular during the Covid lockdowns. Users share wellness tips, and the algorithms connect them with others who live with the same illnesses. Tens of thousands of Chinese doctors have <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2023\/china-doctor-influencer-money-douyin\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">turned into influencers<\/a>, posting videos about everything from skin allergies to heart diseases. Misinformation, unverified remedies and questionable medical ads also spread on these platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother picked up obscure dietary advice from influencers on WeChat. Unprompted, Baidu\u2019s algorithm fed her articles about diabetes. I warned her not to believe everything she read online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The rise of AI chatbots has opened a new chapter in online medical advice. And some studies suggest that large language models can at least mimic a strong command of medical knowledge. One study, published in 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9947764\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">determined that ChatGPT<\/a> achieved the equivalent of a passing score for a third-year medical student in the US Medical Licensing Examination. Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/research.google\/blog\/advancing-medical-ai-with-med-gemini\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google said<\/a> its fine-tuned Med-Gemini models did even better on a similar benchmark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Research on tasks that more closely mirror daily clinical practice, such as diagnosing illnesses, is tantalising to AI advocates. In one <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2412.10849\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2024 study<\/a>, published as a preprint and not yet peer-reviewed, researchers fed clinical data from a real emergency room to OpenAI\u2019s GPT-4o and o1 and found they both outperformed physicians in making diagnoses. In other peer-reviewed studies, chatbots beat at least resident doctors in diagnosing <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/digitalhealth\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pdig.0000341\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">eye problems<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41746-025-01486-5#Sec9\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stomach symptoms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC11263899\/#sec15\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">emergency room cases<\/a>. In June 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/microsoft.ai\/new\/the-path-to-medical-superintelligence\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Microsoft claimed<\/a> it had built an AI-powered system that could diagnose cases four times more accurately than physicians, creating a \u201cpath to medical superintelligence\u201d. Of course, researchers are also flagging <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43856-024-00601-z\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">risks of biases<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/medrxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2025.02.28.25323115v1.full-text\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hallucinations that could lead<\/a> to incorrect diagnoses and treatments, and deeper healthcare disparities. As Chinese LLM companies rushed to catch up with their US counterparts, DeepSeek was the first to rival top Silicon Valley models in overall capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Patients in a crowded hospital in Beijing.  Photograph: Lou Linwei\/Alamy<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Ignoring some of the limitations, users in the US and China are turning to these chatbots regularly for medical advice. One in six American adults said they used chatbots at least once a month to find health-related information, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/health-information-trust\/poll-finding\/kff-health-misinformation-tracking-poll-artificial-intelligence-and-health-information\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2024 survey<\/a>. On Reddit, users <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ChatGPT\/comments\/1kaw3cv\/chatgpt_diagnosed_my_uncommon_neurologic\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">shared story<\/a> after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/ChatGPT\/comments\/1ales5b\/chatgpt_helped_me_solve_my_7_year_undiagnosable\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">story of ChatGPT<\/a> diagnosing their mysterious conditions. On Chinese social media, people also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepaper.cn\/newsDetail_forward_30287945\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported consulting chatbots<\/a> for treatments for themselves, their children and their parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother has told me that whenever she steps into her nephrologist\u2019s office, she feels like a schoolgirl waiting to be scolded. She fears annoying the doctor with her questions. She also suspects that the doctor values the number of patients and earnings from prescriptions over her wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But in the office of Dr DeepSeek, she is at ease. \u201cDeepSeek makes me feel like an equal,\u201d she said. \u201cI get to lead the conversation and ask whatever I want. It lets me get to the bottom of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Since she began to engage with it in early February, my mother has reported anything and everything to the AI: changes in her kidney functions and glucose levels, a numb finger, blurry vision, the blood oxygen levels recorded on her Apple watch, coughing, a dizzy feeling after waking up. She asks for advice on food, supplements and medicines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cAre pecans right for me?\u201d she asked in April. DeepSeek analysed the nut\u2019s nutritional composition, flagged potential health risks and offered portion recommendations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cHere is an ultrasound report of my transplanted kidney,\u201d she typed, uploading the document. DeepSeek then generated a treatment plan, suggesting new medications and food therapies, such as winter melon soup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI\u2019m 57, post-kidney transplantation. I take tacrolimus [an immunosuppressant] at 9am and 9pm. My weight is 39.5kg. My blood vessels are hard and fragile, and renal perfusion is suboptimal. This is today\u2019s diet. Please help analyse the energy and nutritional composition. Thank you!\u201d She then listed everything she\u2019d eaten on that day. DeepSeek suggested she reduce her protein intake and add more fibre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">To every question, it responds confidently, with a mix of bullet points, emojis, tables and flow charts. If my mother said thank you, it added little encouragements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cYou are not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI\u2019m so happy with your improvement!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sometimes, it closes with an emoji of a star or cherry blossom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cDeepSeek is so much better than doctors,\u201d she texted me one day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother\u2019s reliance on DeepSeek grew. Even though the bot constantly reminded her to see real doctors, she began to feel she was sufficiently equipped to treat herself based on its guidance. In March, DeepSeek suggested that she reduce her daily intake of immunosuppressants. She did. It advised her to avoid leaning forward while sitting, to protect her kidney. She sat straighter. Then, it recommended lotus root starch and green tea extract. She bought them both.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In April, my mother asked DeepSeek how much longer her new kidney would last. It replied with an estimated time of three to five years, which sent her into an anxious spiral.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">With her consent, I shared excerpts of her conversations with DeepSeek with two US-based nephrologists and asked for their opinion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">DeepSeek\u2019s answers, according to the doctors, were full of errors. Dr Joel Topf, a nephrologist and associate clinical professor of medicine at Oakland University in Michigan, told me that one of its suggestions to treat her anaemia \u2013 using a hormone called erythropoietin \u2013 could increase the risks of cancer and other complications. Several other treatments DeepSeek suggested to improve kidney functions were unproven, potentially harmful, unnecessary or a \u201ckind of fantasy\u201d, Topf told me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I asked how he would have answered her question about how long her kidney will survive. \u201cI am usually less specific,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of telling people how long they\u2019ve got, we talk about the fraction that will be on dialysis in two or five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Dr Melanie Hoenig, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and nephrologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told me that DeepSeek\u2019s dietary suggestions seem more or less reasonable. But she said DeepSeek had suggested completely the wrong blood tests and mixed up my mother\u2019s original diagnosis with another very rare kidney disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt is sort of gibberish, frankly,\u201d Hoenig said. \u201cFor someone who does not know, it would be hard to know which parts were hallucinations and which are legitimate suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Photograph: Piyamas Dulmunsumphun\/Alamy<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Researchers have found that chatbots\u2019 competence on medical exams do not necessarily translate into the real world. In exam questions, symptoms are clearly laid out. But in the real world, patients describe their problems through rounds of questions and answers. They often don\u2019t know which symptoms are relevant and rarely use the correct medical terminology. Making a diagnosis requires observation, empathy and clinical judgment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41591-024-03328-5\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">study published in Nature Medicine<\/a> earlier this year, researchers designed an AI agent that acts as a pseudo-patient and simulates how humans speak, using it to test LLMs\u2019 clinical capabilities across 12 specialities. All the LLMs did much worse than how they performed in exams. Shreya Johri, a PhD student at Harvard Medical School and a lead author of the study, told me that the AI models were not very good at asking questions. They also lagged in connecting the dots when someone\u2019s medical history or symptoms were scattered across rounds of dialogues. \u201cIt\u2019s important that people take it with a pinch of salt,\u201d Johri said of the LLMs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Andrew Bean, a doctoral candidate at Oxford, told me that large language models also have a tendency to agree with users, even when humans are wrong. \u201cThere are certainly a lot of risks that come with not having experts in the loop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">As my mother bonded with DeepSeek, healthcare providers across China embraced large language models. Since the release of DeepSeek-R1 in January, hundreds of hospitals have incorporated the model into their processes. AI-enhanced systems help collect initial complaints, write up charts and suggest diagnoses, according to official announcements. Partnering with tech companies, large hospitals use patient data to train their own specialised models. One hospital in Sichuan province <a href=\"https:\/\/mp.weixin.qq.com\/s\/SJRpOk1p3Rkf2m3z2z59lg\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">introduced \u201cDeepJoint\u201d<\/a>, a model for orthopaedics that analyses CT or MRI scans to generate surgical plans. A hospital in Beijing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsinghua.edu.cn\/info\/1182\/118817.htm\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">developed \u201cStone Chat AI\u201d<\/a>, which answers patients\u2019 questions about urinary tract stones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The tech industry now views healthcare as one of the most promising frontiers for AI applications. DeepSeek itself has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/big-tech\/article\/3313335\/deepseek-job-ads-call-interns-label-medical-data-improve-ai-use-hospitals\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">begun recruiting interns<\/a> to annotate medical data, in order to improve its models\u2019 medical knowledge and reduce hallucinations. Alibaba <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/tech\/tech-trends\/article\/3312153\/alibabas-healthcare-ai-model-scores-high-senior-level-doctors-medical-exams\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced in May<\/a> that its healthcare-focused chatbot, trained on its Qwen large language models, passed China\u2019s medical qualification exams across 12 disciplines. Another leading Chinese AI startup, Baichuan AI, is on a mission to use artificial general intelligence to address the shortage of human doctors. \u201cWhen we can create a doctor, that\u2019s when we have achieved AGI,\u201d its founder, Wang Xiaochuan, <a href=\"https:\/\/mp.weixin.qq.com\/s\/o7wg-YavNVPm-KJxFpJ9uA\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told a Chinese outlet<\/a>. (Baichuan AI declined my interview request.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Rudimentary \u201cAI doctors\u201d are popping up in the country\u2019s most popular apps. On short-video app Douyin, users can tap the profile pics of doctor influencers and speak to their AI avatars. Payment app Alipay also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yicai.com\/news\/102692259.html\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">offers a medical feature<\/a>, where users can get free consultations with AI oncologists, AI paediatricians, AI urologists and an AI insomnia specialist who is available for a call if you are still wide awake at 3am. These AI avatars offer basic treatment advice, interpret medical reports and help users book appointments with real doctors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Chao Zhang, the founder of AI healthcare startup Zuoshou Yisheng, developed an AI primary care doctor on top of Alibaba\u2019s Qwen models. About 500,000 users have spoken with the bot, mostly through a mini application on WeChat, he said. People have inquired about minor skin conditions, their children\u2019s illnesses, or sexually transmitted diseases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">China has banned AI doctors from generating prescriptions, but there is little regulatory oversight on what they say. Companies are left to make their own ethical decisions. Zhang, for example, has banned his bot from addressing questions about children\u2019s drug use. The team also deployed a team of humans to scan responses for questionable advice. Zhang said he was confident overall with the bot\u2019s performance. \u201cThere\u2019s no correct answer when it comes to medicine,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about how much it\u2019s able to help the users.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">AI doctors are also coming to offline clinics. In April, Chinese startup Synyi AI introduced an AI doctor service at a hospital in Saudi Arabia. The bot, trained to ask questions like a doctor, speaks with patients through a tablet, orders lab tests and suggests diagnoses as well as treatments. A human doctor then reviews the suggestions. Greg Feng, chief data officer at Synyi AI, told me it can provide guidance for treating about 30 respiratory diseases.<\/p>\n<p> Photograph: Andy Wong\/AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Feng said that the AI is more attentive and compassionate than humans. It can switch genders to make the patient more comfortable. And unlike human doctors, it can address patients\u2019 questions for as long as they want. Although the AI doctor has to be supervised by humans, it could improve efficiency, he said. \u201cIn the past, one doctor could only work in one clinic,\u201d Feng said. \u201cNow, one doctor may be able to run two or three clinics at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Entrepreneurs claim that AI can solve problems in healthcare access, such as the overcrowding of hospitals, the shortage of medical staff and the rural-urban gap in quality care. Chinese media have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinanews.com.cn\/sh\/2025\/07-02\/10441669.shtml\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported on AI<\/a> assisting doctors in less-developed regions, including remote areas of the Tibetan plateau. \u201cIn the future, residents of small cities might be able to enjoy better healthcare and education thanks to AI models,\u201d Wei Lijia, a professor in economics at Wuhan University, told me. His study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0167629625000785\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently published in the Journal of Health Economics<\/a>, found that AI assistance can curb overtreatment and enhance physicians\u2019 performance in medical fields beyond their specially. \u201cYour mother,\u201d he said, \u201cwould not need to travel to the big cities to get treated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Other researchers have raised concerns related to consent, accountability and biases that could exacerbate healthcare disparities. In one study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adq0305\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published in Science Advances in March<\/a>, researchers evaluated a model used to analyse chest X-rays and discovered that, compared with human radiologists, it tended to miss potentially life-threatening diseases in marginalised groups, such as women, Black patients and those younger than 40.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI want to be very cautious in saying that AI will help reduce the health disparity in China or in other parts of the world,\u201d said Lu Tang, a professor of communication at Texas A&amp;M University who studies medical AI ethics. \u201cThe AI models developed in Beijing or Shanghai might not work very well for a peasant in a small mountain village.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">When I called my mother and told her what the American nephrologists had said about DeepSeek\u2019s mistakes, she said she was aware that DeepSeek had given her contradictory advice. She understood that chatbots were trained on data from across the internet, she told me, and did not represent an absolute truth or superhuman authority. She had stopped eating the lotus seed starch it had recommended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But the care she gets from DeepSeek also goes beyond medical knowledge: it\u2019s the chatbot\u2019s steady presence that comforts her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I remembered asking why she didn\u2019t direct another type of question she often puts to DeepSeek \u2013 about English grammar \u2013 to me. \u201cYou would find me annoying for sure,\u201d she replied. \u201cBut DeepSeek would say, \u2018Let\u2019s talk more about this.\u2019 It makes me really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The one-child generation has now grown up, and our parents are joining China\u2019s rapidly growing elderly population. The public senior-care infrastructure has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/china\/china-issues-guidance-basic-elderly-care-system-by-2025-2023-05-21\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">yet to catch up<\/a>, but many of us now live far away from our ageing parents and are busy navigating our own challenges. Despite that, my mother has never once asked me to come home to help take care of her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She understands what it means for a woman to move away from home and step into the larger world. In the 1980s, she did just that \u2013 leaving her rural family, where she cooked and did laundry for her parents and younger brother, to attend a teacher training school. She respects my independence, sometimes to an extreme. I call my mother once every week or two. She almost never calls me, afraid she will catch me at a bad time, when I\u2019m working or hanging out with friends.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But even the most understanding parents need someone to lean on. A friend my age in Washington DC, who also emigrated from China, recently discovered her mother\u2019s bond with DeepSeek. Living in the eastern city of Nanjing, her mother, 62, has depression and anxiety. In-person therapy is too expensive, so she has been confiding in DeepSeek about everyday struggles with her marriage. DeepSeek responds with detailed analyses and long to-do lists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cI called my mother daily when she was very depressed and anxious. But for young people like us, it\u2019s hard to keep up,\u201d my friend told me. \u201cThe good thing about AI is she can say what she wants at any moment. She doesn\u2019t need to think about the time difference or wait for me to text back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">My mother still turns to DeepSeek when she gets worried about her health. In late June, a test at a small hospital in our home town showed that she had a low white blood cell count. She reported it to DeepSeek, which suggested follow-up tests. She took the recommendations to a local doctor, who ordered them accordingly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The next day, we got on a call. It was my 8pm and her 8am. I told her to see the nephrologist in Hangzhou as soon as possible. She refused, insisting she was fine with Dr DeepSeek. \u201cIt\u2019s so crowded there,\u201d she said, raising her voice. \u201cThinking about that hospital gives me a headache.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She eventually agreed to see the doctor. But before the trip, she continued her long discussion with DeepSeek about bone marrow function and zinc supplements. \u201cDeepSeek has information from all over the world,\u201d she argued. \u201cIt gives me all the possibilities and options. And I get to choose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I thought back to a conversation we\u2019d had earlier about DeepSeek. \u201cWhen I\u2019m confused, and I have no one to ask, no one I can trust, I go to it for answers,\u201d she\u2019d told me. \u201cI don\u2019t have to spend money. I don\u2019t have to wait in line. I don\u2019t have to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">She added, \u201cEven though it can\u2019t give me a fully comprehensive or scientific answer, at least it gives me an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A version of this article appeared in Rest of World as <a href=\"https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2025\/ai-chatbot-china-sick\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">My Mom and Dr Deepseek<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Listen to our podcasts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/series\/the-long-read\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> and sign up to the long read weekly email <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/ng-interactive\/2017\/may\/05\/sign-up-for-the-long-read-email\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-245021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}