GoKawiilIn brief: The rise of generative AI continues to impact society in unexpected ways. According to a new poll, one of these is making people less willing to take the advice of professionals such as doctors without first confirming it with a chatbot.
It used to be that most people would blindly accept the advice of professionals without questioning it. But new research by Use.AI shows how doctors, teachers, managers, and others are being challenged by AI.
The survey found that just over half (53%) of the 15,428 respondents now use AI to check an explanation from a professional before deciding whether they agree with it.
The other headline result is that 46% said professional credentials now carry less weight than they once did because AI users can independently investigate claims that would previously have been difficult to assess.
AI also means that many people now prepare questions for doctors or other professionals ahead of their appointments, allowing them to ask about subjects they might not otherwise have thought of.
Use.AI has defined this change as an "expertise recession," a decline in automatic deference to professionals who have years of training, experience, and often familiarity with an individual's case.
The problem, of course, is that AI doesn't always get things right, and that can have severe consequences when it comes to medical queries. A chatbot is unlikely to know everything about a patient's medical history, test results, or other details a doctor would have access to.
Last year, a man developed the rare psychiatric disorder bromism after following ChatGPT's suggestion to replace dietary salt with sodium bromide, while a lawsuit alleges the chatbot recommended a dangerous drug combination that resulted in a teenager's fatal overdose. It was also found that Google's AI health summaries cited YouTube more often than authoritative medical sources, and research showed that even a tiny amount of false medical information in training data could significantly increase incorrect answers.
Interestingly, there is a clear age-based split in people's willingness to question professional advice. 70% of adults aged 18 to 34 said AI has made them more comfortable questioning professional advice, compared with 49% of those aged 45 and over.
Ultimately, being confident doesn't mean being right, which should be the disclaimer for all AIs. "AI has democratised confidence faster than it has democratized knowledge," said Ihor Herasymov, co-founder and CEO of Use.AI. "Someone can use AI to arrive at better questions without becoming qualified to judge the answers."