Are Chatbots Beneficial in Healthcare?
Lately, Google’s Med-PaLM 2 underwent trials in research hospitals to assess its suitability in addressing medical queries. This initiative reignited discussions about the incorporation of AI chatbots in healthcare — an area of paramount importance. Unlike domains such as education or IT where AI errors might be tolerable due to generating ambiguous outcomes, the medical realm has zero tolerance for mistakes. Even the slightest error attributed to AI could deteriorate a person’s health or, worse, lead to fatal consequences. Consequently, the integration of AI in healthcare has perennially sparked sensitive debates among scholars. Several news outlets reported on the Mayo Clinic research hospital’s experimentation with Google’s Med-PaLM 2, an AI tool designed to provide medical information. These reports not only highlighted the trials but also offered diverse perspectives, cautioning against the unregulated deployment of AI chatbots in the healthcare sector. This prompts the pivo...