AI chatbots in healthcare: Balancing potential and privacy concerns amidst regulatory gaps
While AI chatbots are gaining popularity for health-related queries, experts warn that uploading sensitive medical images to these platforms could put your privacy at risk.
Security experts are urging caution when using AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok for interpreting medical scans or sharing private health information. Recent trends show users uploading X-rays, MRIs, and other sensitive data to these platforms, but such actions can pose significant privacy risks. Uploaded medical images may become part of training datasets for AI models, leaving personal information exposed to misuse.
Unlike healthcare apps covered by laws like HIPAA, many AI chatbots lack strict data protection safeguards. Companies offering these services may use the data to improve their algorithms, but it’s often unclear who has access or how the data will be used. This lack of transparency has raised alarms among privacy advocates.
X-owner Elon Musk recently encouraged users to upload medical imagery to Grok, his platform’s AI chatbot, citing its potential to evolve into a reliable diagnostic tool. However, Musk acknowledged that Grok is still in its early stages, and critics warn that sharing such data online could have lasting consequences.
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