Ask an AI chatbot about your health or that of a loved one, and you’ll get an answer in seconds. But how can you know whether that information is accurate?
“AI is very powerful, but it’s just a tool,” says Anna Busler, MPH, a community health educator with RWJBarnabas Health. “It’s similar to a calculator in that if we don’t understand how to use it, it can produce a wrong answer.”
AI, Busler explains, uses data to generate a confident, human-sounding response without being human. “This can be confusing,” she says, “because AI isn’t foolproof; it makes mistakes.” Similarly, online search engines like Google display the most popular results, but just because the results are well-read doesn’t mean they’re accurate.
Busler, who teaches courses on AI and healthcare literacy, offers this four-step process to verify health information found online or on social media:
- Review all sources. AI engines and Google AI overviews typically include links to webpages where the information was found. Evaluate those sources. Information from most hospitals, government health sites and peer-reviewed journals is the most credible. Be wary of information pulled from social media influencers who are not medical professionals.
- Cross-reference what you find. Google Scholar and PubMed provide free online access to trusted scholarly research and literature. University and medical school websites are other trustworthy sources.
- Check your emotions. If a social media post or AI response uses language that triggers an emotional response (such as “Here’s what your doctor doesn’t want you to know”), consider that a red flag. Trusted health content uses objective language and aims to educate, not alarm.
- Check with your doctor. Use AI to be your own best advocate. Research information online, synthesize it, then jot down two or three questions you want to ask your doctor.
