No, I would not keep seeing a doctor who demanded I consent to AI to continue being a patient.

Just as I'd stop seeing a doctor who said they now want to ban all vaccines. Or who demands that patients go to their specific church. Or requires that we give blood.

A doctor who asks to use it, however, is entirely tolerable. I don't mind if my doctor has an LLM look at my MRI scan to help find precancerous growths, and neither should you. But "talk to this chatbot instead of a triage nurse" is an unacceptable level of care.

Yes, because there aren't really going to be any more doctors that aren't using AI. AI is widespread and unavoidable. It's definitely unfortunate but it's true.

I have literally seen walk-in doctors have ChatGPT on their screen, they are literally using it to look up symptoms too.

i wonder if they hallucinate notes post-appointment, i notice that there have been complaints against certain providers that the "doctors" did other examinations that they dint do in-person and it appeared on their records.

Yes I would but only if I can be sure the LLM wasn't listening. Collection of personal information requires consent in Canada and I wouldn't be giving consent.

I don't believe for one second the conversations aren't uploaded to a datacenter nor that those transcripts will be deleted.

i would probably look at review sites, to see if happened to anyone else, if they have private pratice, they would have entry and comment on those sites. i would look for a 2nd opinion at this point, if they are going to defer you to AI chatbox.

My dentist started using this. Not the same service, but automatic AI-based visit recording, transcription & record-keeping. She's experienced with a difficult issue I have, so I'm staying with her for now but this is definitely a minus.

Unless it's a private practice, it's probably not the psychiatrist that wants to use that tool, it's probably an initiative on the part of the larger organization. There's good odds that the practitioner themselves is even against it themselves. That said, this sounds like one of the lower risk use-cases; what you're describing is more of a souped up dictation software more than it is truly generative AI.

TLDR; don't let this stress you. Do what feels right for your own care. And, ultimately, keep your own records and notes about your own symptoms day to day vs what treatments you're trying at any given time. Also do your best to educate yourself on what the meds are supposed to be doing, especially what symptoms (not disorders) they're supposed to be treating. Taking the initiative to track your own care in detail is what's really going to get you the best results anyway.

I just had a visit Friday and they made me sign a form agreeing to it.

I do not like this one bit.

Imagine charging $300 then outsourcing your note taking to a machine that barely knows shit and has nothing to lose

I let them know that I was cool with transcription software being used as long as it was installed locally on their machines, but I did not want a third party online app having access to recorded sessions for the purposes of transcription. They didn't take issue with it.

A cynical part in me thinks they'll just have it "locally installed" in the same way that Firefox is locally installed (doesn't mean the meaningful part runs locally), and that no third party has access because the servers just don't show stuff from other tenants even though the server operator could theoretically see all. It's not like the medical people necessarily know better if their vendor answered the concerns in this manner

One way to find out for lay people might be to turn off WiFi, or disconnect the network cable, and see if it still works — in case you're in a position where the doc might seem willing to do such a 30-second experiment (if they haven't already tried this in the past themselves). Doesn't mean it doesn't get uploaded when internet is reconnected (e.g. for backups), but that is much harder to check, and if the vendor already made sure the processing is all local then it's probably okay and not being sold off as training or insurance data

Kudos for reading the terms of service and raising your concerns with them! So long as some of us keep doing that, the privacy of people who don't know about this sort of thing is also better-protected. Thank you :)

It's just a tool, it doesn't really matter. A good doctor will not blindly trust AI only because his employer allowed him to use it. If you notice the services get worse after that then change the provider. Most likely you will not be able to find any puritan healthcare provider that bans the use of all AI. There is a way to use those tools responsibly and you just have to look for doctors that know how to do it. Looking only for doctors that don't use any AI will just limit your choices and make the possibility of getting shitty care greater.