When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, it opened the floodgates to information as never before. It elevated search into a new sphere and gave billions of people the tools to ask anything.
Unsurprisingly, many of these queries concerned health. According to OpenAI, more than 230 million people worldwide ask ChatGPT health- or wellness-related questions weekly. Yet, this unprecedented access to health advice hasn’t been without its controversies.
There are ethical concerns around accountability, inaccurate information, the threat of hallucinations, a lack of contextual awareness, and transparency. And there are the obvious security, compliance, and privacy concerns that come with unsolicited health information.
Now, OpenAI is addressing these issues by announcing the upcoming launch of a dedicated health experience, ChatGPT Health, grounded in two core concepts: security and expert guidance.
ChatGPT Health
OpenAI describes ChatGPT Health as “a dedicated experience that securely brings your health information and ChatGPT’s intelligence together, to help you feel more informed, prepared, and confident navigating your health.”
The ChatGPT Health experience is a dedicated feature within the ChatGPT interface that provides additional layers of protection for users. It includes built-in safety measures and conversation isolation features, ensuring that health discussions remain separate from other chats. Users can also connect wellness apps, such as Apple Health, and access their medical records.
OpenAI says that the purpose of ChatGPT Health is not to replace medical care, diagnose conditions, or provide treatment plans. Instead, it is designed to assist users with everyday health questions and monitor health patterns over time as a supportive resource.
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Ethics and Security
While conversations within ChatGPT already benefit from blanket encryption, ChatGPT Health introduces purpose-built encryption and isolation, ensuring that no data is used for model training. Furthermore, users can enhance access security by deploying multi-factor authentication (MFA). For secure access to U.S. medical records, OpenAI has partnered with b.well, a leading connected healthcare provider.
From an ethical standpoint, OpenAI has developed ChatGPT Health alongside more than 260 physicians who have practiced in 60 countries. Collectively, these physicians have provided OpenAI with feedback on “model outputs over 600,000 times across 30 areas of focus.” This expert guidance has helped OpenAI to develop ChatGPT Health into a service that not only has an inexhaustible knowledge base, but can respond in a manner that prioritizes safety, delivers clear advice, and understands the context of when to suggest follow-up with a registered clinician.
Outputs are measured against the HealthBench framework, developed by OpenAI in collaboration with medical professionals. This framework ensures that responses are evaluated using physician-developed rubrics that incorporate essential criteria for answers, rather than relying on basic Q&A.
Closing Thoughts
There was no doubt that users would quickly turn to ChatGPT to ask health-related questions. In 2022, the same year ChatGPT was launched, a study by The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) found that 58.5% of adults used the internet to find health or medical information.
However, with the emergence of GenAI, the depth of knowledge available instantaneously, as well as the way users actively seek advice, has changed both the methods and consequences of delivering online health information. The AI Era is constantly evolving. What matters most is that companies leading the field adapt to these changes, remain responsive to user feedback, and sometimes even make U-turns. They must evolve their services to create an ecosystem of AI tools that prioritize user safety, privacy, and agency and to that end, OpenAI is making major strides.
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