In the six months since the world was introduced to ChatGPT on Nov. 30, researchers have been testing the artificial intelligence chatbot in myriad ways to find out its potential effects on everything from how well it can write a college essay to whether or not it will be useful to physicians and hospitals.
One of the biggest questions being asked is: Will artificial intelligence eventually replace people when it comes to work that has always required human interaction, including that of physicians?
Researchers from the University of California San Diego chose 195 questions that had been asked by real patients on a social media platform. They had ChatGPT answer the questions and compared the AI responses to those provided online by verified physicians.
The questions and answers researchers chose to analyze were about random topics, such as whether or not it's dangerous to swallow a toothpick and could a person get a concussion after hitting their head on a piece of metal.
"The chatbot responses were preferred over physician responses and rated significantly higher for both quality and empathy," according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine on April 28.
The panel did not know which answers were written by a physician or chatbot at the time of analysis.
Compared with physician responses, four times as many of the chatbot's answers fell into the highest brackets for quality, and around 10 times more attained the highest empathy ratings. ChatGPT's answers to the questions were, on average, four times longer — 52-word answers from physicians compared with 211 words per AI post.
The upside of these study results is that "artificial intelligence assistants may be able to aid in drafting responses to patient questions," the researchers concluded.
Artificial intelligence could possibly also be used to remove other administrative burdens from clinicians; chatbots can act as virtual assistants and help patients schedule appointments and offer answers to questions about symptoms of and treatments for various conditions.
Additionally, artificial intelligence technology might also be able to reduce the amount of time physicians spend creating clinical documentation and automate processes including charting.