--- title: "Google Is Already Testing a Medical AI Chatbot in Hospitals" description: "Google has been quietly testing a medical AI chatbot in Mayo Clinic and other hospitals for months, according to a report." date: "2023-07-11" modified: "2023-07-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/google-medical-ai-chatbot" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Developments" - "Google" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" tags: - "ai chatbots" - "Google" - "health" - "medical ai" --- # Google Is Already Testing a Medical AI Chatbot in Hospitals ![Google has been quietly testing a medical AI chatbot in Mayo Clinic and other hospitals for months, according to a report.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Google has been quietly testing a medical AI chatbot in hospitals for months. Since April, scientists have been testing the bot dubbed Med-PaLM 2 at the research hospital Mayo Clinic, among other hospitals, [according to *The Wall Street Journal*](). The bot is a medicine-specific iteration of [Google's PaLM 2](), a powerful large language model that was [first unveiled]() at the company's I/O keynote in May. (PaLM 2 also powers Google's ChatGPT competitor, Bard.) Med-PaLM 2 is trained specifically on medical-licensing exams and designed to provide users with medical advice. It's also meant to organize healthcare data and summarize documents. The news comes just months after Microsoft [announced]() its own version of a similar, medicine-oriented chatbot called BioGPT. Although, if BioGPT is anything to go by, having healthcare professionals use a product like this isn't without risk. When [*Futurism* tested Microsoft's model]() back in March, we found that the chatbot, [like others](), had a serious problem with fabricating information, drumming up fake scientific citations, spouting outlandish claims about ghosts in hospitals, and even rehashing vaccine misinformation. To that end, per the *WSJ*, doctors working with Med-PaLM 2 have found that the bot's outputs "included more inaccurate or irrelevant content in its responses than those of their peers." A [not-yet-peer-reviewed paper]() by [Google DeepMind]() engineers shared in May also found that while the machine actually performed on par with or better than human doctors in several metrics, including knowledge recall and reading comprehension, errors in the AI's responses were rampant. In other words, Google has yet to prove that its model is reliable at one of the main things it's designed to do: offer accurate medical advice at scale. And that, of course, is tremendously important. A fabrication in a Bard-written school essay might get a student a bad grade. Confidently written, yet error-laden medical advice, on the other hand, could have dire health consequences. As for who could make use of such a chatbot, Google could be aiming its tool at the developing world. An internal Google email to employees from April reviewed by the *WSJ* explained that Med-PaLM 2 could "be of tremendous value in countries that have more limited access to doctors." Still, even higher-ups at Google Research admit that the tech isn't quite where it needs to be — at least not for their own family's sake. "I don't feel that this kind of technology is yet at a place where I would want it in my family's healthcare journey," Greg Corrado, a senior research director at Google who worked on the product, told the *WSJ.* Despite these glaring shortcomings, Corrado still believes in the tech's potential, telling the newspaper that Med-PaLM 2 "takes the places in healthcare where AI can be beneficial and expands them by tenfold." According to the *WSJ*, Google declined to say when Med-PaLM 2 might be made more widely available. Considering that it seems to be deeply flawed, that's probably a good thing. **More on medical AIs:** [*Microsoft Released an AI That Answers Medical Questions, but It’s Wildly Inaccurate*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()