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

NEWS AND VIEWS

09 June 2026

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

Moritz Gerstung in the Division for AI in Oncology, German Cancer Research Centre DKFZ, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

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.

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

References

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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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