DR KAYE: Two of my patients were given medical advice by AI that put their lives in danger. This is exactly why chatbots won't always tell you the truth about your health...

A UK GP, Dr. Kaye, reports that two of her patients received dangerous medical advice from AI chatbots, which failed to identify symptoms of cervical and ovarian cancer, delaying diagnosis and putting their lives at risk. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says roughly a quarter of its 800 million weekly users send it a health question every week, and around 40 million do so daily. The Eve Appeal, a UK gynaecological cancer charity, tested ChatGPT and found it failed to mention ovarian cancer for persistent bloating and vulval cancer for a persistent vulval itch.

DR KAYE: Two of my patients were given medical advice by AI that put their lives in danger. This is exactly why chatbots won't always tell you the truth about your health... A patient of mine started bleeding after sex. Worried, she asked ChatGPT /sciencetech/chatgpt/index.html about it before she asked me. The chatbot reassured her it could simply be down to her contraceptive coil, so she didn't come in to see me until the bleeding got worse and she developed abdominal pain. By then, scans showed worrying changes on her cervix. Had she come to me first, I could have told her that this kind of bleeding can be a sign of cervical cancer /news/cancer/index.html . Then there was the patient who asked an AI /sciencetech/ai/index.html chatbot about her bloating. She was told it was probably her diet – possibly irritable bowel syndrome. It wasn't. Her bloating never went away, had nothing to do with what she ate, and turned out to be a symptom of ovarian cancer. I have been a GP for more than 20 years, and patients have always brought me all sorts – pages ripped from newspapers, printouts from the internet, something a friend's cousin's brother once said. I don't mind – people taking an interest in their own health means we're on the same team. But there is a new doctor on the scene now who really does worry me: Dr AI – be that Dr ChatGPT, Dr Gemini or another. None of them are actually doctors and, while I can see real promise for AI in parts of medicine they are turning out to be amazing at spotting cancer on scans, for instance , right now these tools are making mistakes and handing out misinformation that risks lives. Tens of millions of people now turn to chatbots before they consult a GP AI is unable to give humans better health advice than they can find using more traditional methods, researchers found Millions of people now turn to chatbots before they consult a GP. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, says roughly a quarter of its 800million weekly users send it a health question every week, and around 40million do so daily. I am not the only one worried. The Eve Appeal, the UK's leading gynaecological cancer charity, recently put ChatGPT to the test, feeding it the classic warning signs of the five gynaecological cancers – womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval and vaginal. The results were troubling. Asked about persistent bloating, one of the leading symptoms of ovarian cancer, the chatbot didn't mention ovarian cancer as a possible cause at all. Asked about a persistent vulval itch – a well-recognised red flag – it failed to mention vulval cancer too. The failings of AI health advice are having a very tangible and dangerous effect on countless patients. A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 UK women found almost one in ten with gynaecological symptoms had already turned to AI platforms such as ChatGPT for advice. A quarter of them said the chatbot's answer left them feeling reassured they didn't need to worry, and fewer than a third came away encouraged to see a doctor. These are all patients who could potentially have cancer, who have been advised away from seeing a doctor by AI. This matters because most people don't know enough about gynaecological cancers to begin with – the Eve Appeal's own research found only two in every hundred can name all five. Time matters hugely when it comes to cancer. Early diagnosis usually means less brutal treatment and a real improvement in survival odds. A chatbot that fails to even mention cancer can delay diagnosis – and put lives at risk. Part of the problem is that AI wants to please you. It is, after all, a consumer product: it wants you to keep coming back. If its outlook was overly negative, then you might turn to a more positive chatbot. Moreover, the answer you receive will depend on how you frame the question. If you ask the AI for reassurance ‘should I be worried about bleeding after sex?’ , then it will give you reassurance. It’s possible to reframe the question to get a more realistic response ‘Give me the worst case scenario’ , but even then AI is prone to mistakes. At the bottom of each response, the popular chatbot Claude adds a disclaimer that says ‘Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses’. Would you trust the advice of your GP if they caveated everything by urging you to double-check their advice in case it was wrong? I do understand why people are increasingly turning to AI for health advice. Getting a GP appointment isn't always easy, and that frustrates me as much as anyone – there aren't enough of us, and the system is stretched thin. Into that gap slips AI, with all its potential for getting things wrong. GP, author and broadcaster Dr Philippa Kaye Here is what your GP knows that a chatbot never will: your full medical history, your allergies, your family history. AI can't examine you, can't order a blood test or a scan, and can't ask follow-up questions that turn a vague symptom into an accurate assessment. Your GP is appraised every year and revalidated every five, and if we get something wrong you can complain to the practice, the ombudsman or the safety regulator, the General Medical Council. None of that applies to a chatbot. We are not perfect. But neither is AI – and unlike us, it has no idea when it's wrong. Many people also do not realise that it is easier to reach a real NHS doctor than it was a few years ago. The NHS app now lets you order repeat prescriptions, view your health record, message your practice and, in a growing number of areas, book GP appointments directly – often faster than sitting on hold. Yet huge numbers of patients still haven't downloaded it, or haven't opened it since they last needed a Covid vaccine pass remember those? . So next time it's 2am and you're anxiously searching for whatever symptom is worrying you, don't rely on Dr GPT. Try contacting your real doctor instead.