Beth Israel Trial Finds A.I. Chatbot Helped in 75% of Urgent Care Cases
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 8
Beth Israel Trial Finds A.I. Chatbot Helped in 75% of Urgent Care Cases
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 8
Summary
Nearly 100 Beth Israel Deaconess urgent care patients used a Google chatbot before seeing doctors in an eight-month clinical trial published Thursday in The Lancet.
Physicians said the bot was helpful in about 75% of cases and may have changed how they handled more than half of those encounters.
The chatbot asked about symptoms, possible causes and treatments, then generated visit summaries for doctors to review before appointments.
Hundreds of conversations produced just one hallucination, while patients said they trusted the system only when it operated alongside trained physicians.
The first-of-its-kind study tested whether specialized A.I. could support primary care without causing misleading or harmful advice, pointing to a clinician-supervised role rather than standalone care.