Hi, and welcome to Your Health Quickly, a scientific American podcast series.

On this show, we highlight the latest vital health news, discoveries that affect your body

and your mind.

Every episode, we dive into one topic.

We discuss diseases, treatments, and some controversies.

And we demystify the medical research in ways you can use to stay healthy.

I'm Tonya Lewis.

I'm Josh Fishman.

We are scientific Americans, senior health editors.

Today, we're talking about how chat-based AI programs are being used to help diagnose

medical problems.

They're surprisingly accurate, but they do come with a few pitfalls.

Josh, have you ever used Google to try to diagnose a medical issue?

Do you mean typing in what are the causes of low back pain, or is drug X the best treatment

for a glaucoma?

Yeah, that happens pretty much every other day, either for me or for someone in my family.

Yeah, I have too.

And I know it's a bad idea, because somehow every search that I do ends up suggesting

that whatever I have is cancer.

But now there's a new way to get medical info online.

Generative AI chatbots.

Like chat GPT?

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