our reporting examined
In eastern China, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient named my mother embarks on a two-day journey every few months to visit her doctor. She travels by high-speed train and spends long hours in clinics where she barely gets any time with the specialist. Frustrated with the lack of attention, she turned to China's leading AI chatbot, DeepSeek, for medical advice.
Over time, she became increasingly reliant on this virtual doctor, relying on it for guidance on diet, exercise, and medication. Despite worries about the reliability of AI, my mother praised DeepSeek for being more humane than human doctors. This story illustrates the growing role of AI in healthcare systems, both in China and around the world, offering a potential solution for patients who feel underserved by traditional medical care.
However, the use of AI in medical contexts raises concerns about accuracy, bias, and the potential risks involved in outsourcing critical health decisions to machines.
Written by urgent.news from Rest of World's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
