Seeing a doctor with a "ChatGPT" diagnosis: how AI is changing patient habits
A survey shows nearly a quarter of young people in Latvia would turn to artificial intelligence first when facing a health problem, and doctors increasingly find themselves working with patients who arrive with an AI-suggested diagnosis already in hand.
Doctors in Latvia report a shift in patient behavior in recent years. Where people once searched for information on search engines like Google before a doctor's visit, they are now increasingly turning to AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and others. Dermatologist Raimonds Karls describes this trend, noting that patients increasingly refer to these "new doctors" — as he jokingly calls them — during consultations.
What the survey shows
The trend is confirmed by a public survey conducted by LSM.lv together with the research agency Norstat. According to its findings, almost a quarter of young people in Latvia would turn to artificial intelligence first when facing a health issue, rather than going straight to a doctor.
Questions about safety
This growing reliance raises questions about how safe it is to depend on advice and conclusions generated by artificial intelligence in matters of health. At the same time, doctors' everyday work is changing: medical professionals increasingly find themselves not only diagnosing patients but also having to evaluate, and sometimes refute, a diagnosis or treatment already suggested to the patient by an AI tool.
The growing availability of AI tools and their widespread everyday use, particularly among young people, suggests that this issue will become increasingly significant for the medical field, affecting both patient trust and the communication between doctors and patients.
