The latest episode of BBC’s Tech Life explores concerns that shadow banning is limiting access to health advice for women and young girls – a digital obstacle that takes on new urgency as OpenAI expands ChatGPT into health records, just one day after a Florida man sued the company over chatbot advice he says nearly killed him.
On Wednesday, a Florida man filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court alleging ChatGPT gave him “extremely dangerous medical recommendations” that discouraged him from seeking care as his pulmonary embolism worsened. Later hospitalised, the plaintiff says he now faces years of intensive physical and psychological recovery after the chatbot repeatedly reassured him his symptoms were not serious and urged him to remain at home.
“OpenAI launches health data feature a day after lawsuit over chatbot's 'dangerous' medical advice”
OpenAI responded through a spokesperson who told The New York Times that ChatGPT’s terms of service make clear it is not intended for medical diagnosis or treatment, and that the company’s models have improved since the incident. The spokesperson reiterated that point to The Register.
The following day, OpenAI launched “Health in ChatGPT”, a feature allowing eligible users to connect Apple Health data – including medical records, sleep, activity, medications and allergies – to the chatbot for more personalised health conversations.
“With your permission, ChatGPT can consider relevant information you have connected, such as medications, lab results, recent visits, sleep, and activity, alongside the goals and context you share,” the company said in its announcement.
OpenAI said the integration follows testing of a dedicated Health experience earlier this year that users often bypassed, with more than 70 percent of health-related conversations occurring outside that space. The company also said it will not use connected health data to train its foundation models or serve ads.
Despite those assurances, the Health in ChatGPT announcement acknowledges the chatbot can still make mistakes and should not replace qualified medical professionals. OpenAI says it worked with hundreds of physicians to test the feature for performance and safety.
The BBC Tech Life episode, presented by Shiona McCallum and produced by Tom Quinn, examines a parallel concern: shadow banning – a practice that may be limiting health education messages for women and young girls, raising questions about who gets to access crucial advice in the age of AI.