Dr. Chatbot: Understanding the Regulatory Requirements for Artificial Intelligence in Health Care
This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue of LACHES, the official publication of the Michigan Oakland County Bar Association. It is republished here with permission.
Can artificial intelligence (AI) be my new doctor? Maybe. There do not appear to be many guardrails stopping AI from acting as such. Recently I put various symptoms into an AI chatbot and asked it to diagnose me. The chatbot responded with its best approximation of what was wrong with me, then suggested I follow up with the doctor. I did it a second time, with different symptoms, and again it diagnosed me, then suggested I follow up with a doctor. Is this different from entering my symptoms into Google and seeing the top result from WebMD? Or submitting my symptoms into a symptom checker online? It feels different — likely because the chatbot's response was personally tailored to me. Is this considered practicing medicine?