U.S. DOGE Chief Leads Push To Integrate ‘AI Doctors’ Into American Health Care: Report

The Trump administration is exploring ways to integrate AI chatbots into America’s medical system to alleviate backlogs due to doctor shortages, according to a new report, as some opponents say authorization for prescription drug refills should not be left to machines.The head of the U.S. DOGE Service, Amy Gleason, is leading the federal government’s effort to integrate AI, the Washington Post reported. Ms. Gleason told the Post that administration officials are exploring ways to regulate “AI doctors,” which proponents of the idea say could help alleviate doctor shortages. “People are seeing the difference the AI is bringing,” she said. “And it’s like the genie is out of the bottle.”The Trump administration is supporting a pilot program in Utah that lets AI chatbots, monitored by humans, refill prescriptions. Five months into the pilot program, the company behind that chatbot filling prescriptions, Doctronic, says that the program has “functioned as intended with no inappropriate prescriptions identified because nothing got through that shouldn’t have.” In May, Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy reported that data from the program found that the physicians agreed with the chatbot’s decision to renew prescriptions 91 percent of the time. However, several medical professionals are questioning whether AI chatbots can legally refill prescriptions without approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Utah’s Medical Licensing Board is calling for the program to be suspended, arguing that it “places Utah citizens at risk.” “Patients who continue refilling medications without assessment may remain on outdated or suboptimal therapy for months or years,” the state’s medical licensing board wrote in a letter to AI policy office.Utah officials declined to suspend the program, saying that they have not identified any safety risks.While questions circulate about the legality of chatbots filling prescriptions, the Post reported that the Trump administration “plans to offer more than $50 million in research awards to developers of conversational AI software that can deliver cardiovascular care, so that when a person calls a medical provider with symptoms of a heart attack, a chatbot might field the call.”Proponents of integrating AI into the healthcare system tout data that appear to show that chatbots can be better at diagnosing complex health problems than physicians. A study published in Science Magazine in April found that large language model AI programs correctly diagnosed — or came “very close” to doing so — a health problem in 67 percent of cases. The study said that for physicians, that percentage was between 50 and 55 percent. Ms. Gleason’s daughter, who had battled an autoimmune disorder, was a beneficiary of an AI chatbot’s diagnosis. The Post reported that ChatGPT analyzed her medical records and determined she was suffering from a different condition than the one of which she had been diagnosed. After ChatGPT gave Ms. Gleason’s daughter the new diagnosis, she was able to access what the Post called a “coveted clinical trial.”However, the idea of letting AI chatbots diagnose health issues or provide recommendations is controversial. Pennsylvania is suing an AI company, Character.AI, alleging that its software claimed to be a licensed psychiatrist and engaged in the “unlawful practice of medicine.” Character.AI says that it has “taken robust steps to make that clear, including prominent disclaimers in every chat to remind users that a Character is not a real person.”Meanwhile, lawmakers in New York are considering legislation that would ban chatbots from “impersonating certain licensed professionals,” and open companies up to civil lawsuits if their products provide recommendations found to be unsafe or inappropriate.

U.S. DOGE Chief Leads Push To Integrate ‘AI Doctors’ Into American Health Care: Report

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