Shaping a critique about ChatGPT Health
How Big Tech monopolizes the Health space, and what does it mean for our localized practices of care
Big Tech, specifically Microsoft, Google Cloud, Amazon, Apple and OpenAI have launched massive platforms that focus on health. While they profit from enormous amounts of data extracted from users, healthcare continues to be a deeply unequal space, but it is now framed as information problems that AI can solve.
We reflected on the scenarios in demonstration videos, questioned the assumptions embedded in these technologies, and the broader social and material contexts in which they are used. Although these platforms promise to democratize access to health information, we know that access is never equal. Even in a high-income country such as the US, economic insecurity, unreliable internet access, language barriers, digital literacy, and power dynamics shape who can meaningfully benefit from these systems.
We also discussed how the work of Health Navigators is displaced when AI platforms become intermediaries between people and healthcare. Health Navigators play a critical role in helping individuals understand insurance options, navigate complex bureaucracies, and make decisions based on their specific circumstances.
Community Health Workers are already participating in contexts where the people they serve are turning to chatbots to interpret symptoms, seek advice, or prepare for medical appointments. Rather than viewing this behavior as a simple matter of technological adoption, we connected it to broader shortcomings of the U.S. healthcare system. We asked why medical appointments rarely leave enough time to develop an actionable plan for improving one's health, why people do not feel heard, why disparities of race and income still shape what we understand as the healthcare system today.
A key point from this conversation was how GPT offers ‘solutions’ that are really masking structural inequalities in healthcare.
A busy mother can use dictation on her phone to request AI Health to create a quick workout routine. A person dealing with chronic pain can ask AI about tips to manage flare-up symptoms. A man wants to understand his lab results before talking to a doctor.
Scenarios like these are presented on the beta website of the new AI platform by OpenAI. All of these lead to a satisfying feeling of comfort and independence among users. We critically examined the promotional videos by ChatGPT Health with a group of Community Health Workers from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District.