People are turning to AI chatbots to plug gaps in health information

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09 June 2026 People are turning to AI chatbots to plug gaps in health information A systematic assessment of health-related queries to a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence highlights shortfalls in health-care provision and the responsibilities of AI companies. By Moritz Gerstung ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6709-963X 0 Moritz Gerstung Moritz Gerstung in the Division for AI in Oncology, German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar

Many of us have turned to the Internet with health-related questions. In fact, the phrase ‘googling symptoms’ has become synonymous with the opportunities and challenges of a layperson navigating health information online. This kind of information is complex, and, at times, of questionable quality. The same can be said about answers from chatbots powered by artificial intelligence. In a paper in Nature Health, Costa-Gomez et al.1 characterize how people are using chatbots to answer questions related to health and well-being.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01737-9

References Costa-Gomes, B. et al. Nature Health https://doi.org/10.1038/s44360-026-00117-x (2026). Singhal, K. et al. Nature 620, 172–180 (2023). Tiller, N. B. et al. BMJ Open 16, e112695 (2026). Ramaswamy, A. et al. Nature Med. 32, 1671–1675 (2026). Pasquini, G., Stocking, G., Kikuchi, E., Pula, I. & Yam, E. Where Do Americans Get Health Information, and What Do They Trust? (Pew Research Center, 2026). OpenAI. AI as a Healthcare Ally (OpenAI, 2026). Brodeur, P. G. et al. Science 392, 524–527 (2026). Bean, A. M. et al. Nature Med. 32, 609–615 (2026). Sharma, M. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.13548 (2025). Busch, F. et al. npj Digit. Med. 7, 210 (2024). Download references

Competing Interests M.G. is the prospective co-founder of chronosight.ai, an AI start-up company developing predictive health models based on Delphi-2M (international patent application PCT/EP2025/065771 titled ‘Healthcare modelling’, filing date 5 June 2025. Inventors: Gerstung, Moritz; Shmatko, Artem; Jung, Alexander; Birney, Ewan; Fitzgerald, Tom).

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