Researchers found that people may be less likely to take health advice from an AI doctor when the robot knows their name and medical history. On the other hand, patients want to be on a first-name basis with their human doctors.

Researchers from Penn State and University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) found that people may be less likely to take health advice from an AI doctor when the robot knows their name and medical history. On the other hand, patients want to be on a first-name basis with their human doctors.

When the AI doctor used the first name of the patients and referred to their medical history in the conversation, study participants were more likely to consider an AI health chatbot intrusive and also less likely to heed the AI’s medical advice, the researchers added. However, they expected human doctors to differentiate them from other patients and were less likely to comply when a human doctor failed to remember their information.

The findings offer further evidence that machines walk a fine line in serving as doctors, said S. Shyam Sundar, James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State.

«Machines don’t have the ability to feel and experience, so when they ask patients how they are feeling, it’s really just data to them,» said Sundar, who is also an affiliate of Penn State’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS). «It’s possibly a reason why people in the past have been resistant to medical AI.»

Machines do have advantages as medical providers, said Joseph B. Walther, distinguished professor in communication and the Mark and Susan Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society at UCSB. He said that, like a family doctor who has treated a patient for a long time, computer systems could — hypothetically — know a patient’s complete medical history. In comparison, seeing a new doctor or a specialist who knows only your latest lab tests might be a more common experience, said Walther, who is also director of the Center for Information Technology and Society at UCSB.

Story Source: Materials provided by Penn State. Original written by Matt Swayne. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.