Over five percent of ChatGPT messages worldwide are about health
Length: • 1 min
Annotated by Daniel Torres Burriel
More than five percent of all messages sent through ChatGPT globally deal with health-related topics. According to a report OpenAI shared exclusively with Axios, 40 million Americans alone use the chatbot daily for medical questions. Users ask it to explain medical bills, compare insurance plans, or check symptoms - often because no doctor is available at the moment. OpenAI spotted this trend early and marketed GPT-5 as a particularly capable model for these use cases.
The report shows OpenAI logging nearly two million questions about insurance topics per week. The surge comes after the Trump administration let long-standing health insurance subsidies expire at the start of the new year. However, using AI for medical advice carries significant risks: the models still hallucinate, and many users likely rely on weaker model versions without reasoning capabilities.
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