AI chatbots fall short when giving cancer treatment recommendations: 'Remain cautious'

OpenAI's ChatGPT has become a popular go-to for quick responses to questions of all types -- but a new study in JAMA Oncology suggests that the artificial intelligence chatbot might have some serious shortcomings when it comes to doling out medical advice for cancer treatment. Researchers from Mass General Brigham, Sloan Kettering and Boston Children's Hospital put ChatGPT to the test by compiling 104 different prompts and asking the chatbot for recommendations on cancer treatments. Next, they had a team of four board-certified oncologists review and score the responses using five criteria. Although language learning models (LLMs) have successfully passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, the chatbot underperformed when it came to providing accurate cancer treatment recommendations that align with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. In many cases, the responses were unclear or mixed inaccurate and accurate information.