AI is everywhere in healthcare now. Doctors are conflicted

August 28, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

AI is everywhere in healthcare now. Doctors are conflicted

Dr. Jonathan Chen, director for medical education in artificial intelligence at Stanford, describes the pace of change in medicine as akin to "the internet got invented three years ago." He worked in AI and medicine a decade ago, when the technology was "unusable." Six years ago, students dismissed it. Then ChatGPT arrived, barely passing the medical exam. Now, Chen says, AI is "basically as good or better than most doctors at answering medical questions." The majority of U.S. physicians have now touched some form of AI—often without realizing it, since even Google search now integrates AI into responses. But touching it and using it effectively are two different things.

What doctors are actually doing with AI

The most commonly used tools are generic chatbots—ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini—alongside medical-specific platforms like OpenEvidence, Amboss, and Doximity's product. OpenEvidence in particular has become a multi-billion-dollar company in just a couple of years by creating an interface familiar to doctors.

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What you'll learn

1 (01:48) **The Speed of Change** - Dr. Chen compares the current AI shift to "the internet got invented three years ago," noting that AI went from being unusable to passing medical exams in a very short time.
2 (02:30) **How Many Doctors Are Using AI?** - Many are using it without realizing it, and the majority have now at least tried it, but effective use remains a problem.
3 (03:04) **The Tools Doctors Are Actually Using** - Generic chat platforms like ChatGPT are most common, but specialized medical tools are emerging.
4 (03:48) **The Two Main Use Cases** - Ambient scribes for note-taking and AI as a "second consultation" for answering clinical questions.
5 (04:56) **Why Doctors Get Hooked** - AI is not solving medicine, but it is powerfully assisting with organizing and making sense of overwhelming medical knowledge.
6 (05:38) **How Medical AI Avoids Hallucination** - Specialized tools use "retrieval augmented generation" (RAG) to ground answers in real articles, allowing doctors to "trust but verify."
7 (06:57) **The New, Deeper Problem** - Even with accurate citations, AI can misinterpret studies or cite low-quality evidence, which is a "fundamental medical knowledge and reasoning problem."

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Show Notes

AI is popping up in many corners of society, but how are doctors using it in their practice? We asked our physician listeners to call in, and many of you did. What we heard mirrored broad trends: that more and more doctors are using AI tools for diagnosis, paperwork, and getting up to speed on patients. But they also have concerns.

So how is AI changing medical care? And how is it affecting patients? Joining Host Flora Lichtman to sort fact from hallucination is physician-computer scientist Jonathan Chen, who’s studied the accuracy of these models and how healthcare workers use them.

Guest:

Dr. Jonathan Chen is an associate professor of medicine and director for Medical Education in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University.

Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

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