If the buzz is to be believed, ChatGPT seems poised to upend everything from high school essays and news articles to computer coding and scientific research.
The program has generated huge interest for its ability to write nearly anything it’s asked to write and to answer questions. Microsoft has announced a “multiyear, multibillion dollar” investment — rumored to be as high as $10 billion — into its maker, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI. People are now putting the tool to all sorts of tests — including experiments in health care and medicine. Already, ChatGPT has been named as a co-author on multiple research papers and passed, with a decent performance, a version of the U.S. licensing exams for physicians, fueling hype about its future in health care.
“AI has a history of massive overhype,” said Elliot Bolton, a research engineer at Stanford’s Center for Research on Foundation Models. “Robot doctors are not coming tomorrow. I will get in huge trouble if I don’t say there aren’t going to be robot doctors tomorrow.”
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