Amid rising concerns about people relying on ChatGPT for medical advice, OpenAI made its most significant push yet into health care.<\/p>\n
The company has launched a new feature called ChatGPT Health, which allows users in the U.S. to connect their medical records and data from wellness apps and wearable devices with ChatGPT. The tool is designed to help users understand test results, get advice on diets and workouts, and prepare for doctors\u2019 appointments.<\/p>\n
More than 230 million people globally ask ChatGPT health and wellness-related questions every week, according to the company. ChatGPT Health is designed in collaboration with physicians and will \u201chelp people take a more active role in understanding and managing their health and wellness,\u201d the company said in a post<\/a>.<\/p>\n OpenAI said it will look to expand access to the feature in markets such as India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines, where adoption is rising quickly. In these countries, overburdened<\/a> health-care systems and unequal access to doctors are leading more people to turn to generative AI for guidance<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not have the people, the labor to deliver the care we should,\u201d Jesse Ehrenfeld, chief medical officer at Aidoc, an Israeli medical technology company, said at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. \u201cThe only way out of this mess is digital and AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers, ethicists, and medical professionals have warned of the risks to users<\/a> from biases and hallucinations in AI systems. Concern over the mental health harms that AI chatbots pose is growing. Meta\u2019s AI chatbots provided inappropriate advice to teenagers when talking about suicide and eating disorders, Common Sense Media<\/a>, a nonprofit research organization, reported last year.<\/p>\n The family of a teenager who died by suicide has sued OpenAI<\/a> and its chief executive officer Sam Altman, accusing them of wrongful death. The company said it has safeguards in place<\/a> to help people, and that it continues to improve ChatGPT\u2019s training.<\/p>\n There is also the question of data privacy. Health data, particularly information related to mental disease and substance use, is sensitive, and its misuse can leave users vulnerable.<\/p>\n While consumer awareness about privacy has increased, people generally do not know how their data is being used, including for marketing purposes or for tracking, Sam Siegfried, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Schulte, told Rest of World on the sidelines of CES.<\/p>\n \u201cThe person clearly trusts an app enough to give it their data,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they should understand what they are using the app for, and whether its data requests sync up with what they are using it for.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI said ChatGPT Health \u201cbuilds on the strong privacy, security, and data controls across ChatGPT with additional, layered protections designed specifically for health \u2014 including purpose-built encryption and isolation to keep health conversations protected and compartmentalized.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no stopping tech companies from entering the health sector.<\/p>\n Besides turning to AI chatbots for health queries, people are also buying more wearable digital devices, including smartwatches, rings, bracelets, and glasses, to track physical activity, vital signs, and various physiological responses in real-time. They take this data to their doctors \u2014 or to ChatGPT \u2014 with questions on how to interpret it or use it to improve their health.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth-related anxiety is real. AI is not as good as a doctor, but it\u2019s better than no care at all,\u201d Ami Bhatt, chief innovation officer at the American College of Cardiology, said at CES.<\/p>\n OpenAI isn\u2019t the only big tech company keen to tap the health-care sector.<\/p>\n