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Can you trust AI for health advice? 3 days ago | By Colleen Young, Connect Director (@colleenyoung)Comment receiving replies
There is another problem with AI, that is specific to organizations like Mayo:
AI "engines" scour the Internet for information to build their massive databases of knowledge. Unfortunately, often these engines are not able to tell the difference between some desperate person posting about some unproven treatment, & real medical science.
Google web search in particular is guilty of this. It will often post some statement as truth, where the source is a group discussion like we have here, or a YouTube video which at best biased or worse.
Not much you can do about the latter, but the former is a problem in medical discussions. If several people start to endorse an unproven treatment in a thread, & an AI engine uses that thread as the source for reporting the value of such a treatment, it can look like the unproven treatment (taken out of context) is endorsed by the medical organization hosting the discussion.
This is a fine line for medical group discussions hosted by medical organizations like Mayo. If the organization blocks such discussions, people needing help may go elsewhere, rather than learning the truth about unproven treatments. On the other hand, permitting unproven treatments to go without sound science rebuttal, can create the appearance of support, & that impression can be quickly propagated worldwide.
Personally, I lean toward removing such discussions, as I believe that the danger is greater in letting such discussions persist without prompt rebuttal.
However, I am not in charge.
Replies to "@colleenyoung There is another problem with AI, that is specific to organizations like Mayo: AI "engines"..."
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@readandlearn, you raise a very important point that people should be aware of. AI engines scrape everything, including comments in online forums like Reddit, Facebook, and health forums like this one and others such as Inspire, HealthUnlocked, PatientsLikeMe and countless others.
When reading an AI overview in search results, it is important to know that the information can be wrong. AI tools can sound sure, even when they’re wrong. Always check the original sources. See more guidance provided in this blog post:
- What is Generative AI? What does this mean on Mayo Clinic Connect? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/newsfeed-post/what-is-generative-ai-artificial-intelligence-what-does-this-mean-on-mayo-clinic-connect/
We take moderation of Mayo Clinic Connect seriously, removing disinformation, correcting misinformation, and helping people understand the dis- and misinformation they may find elsewhere. We also moderate posts (and sometimes remove them) if they contravene the Community Guidelines (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/)
You can read more about why and how we moderate Mayo Clinic Conncet here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/tab/moderators/
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