DW
Videos of AI-generated doctors giving health and beauty tips on social media are becoming hugely popular, generating millions of clicks. How accurate are their claims? And how dangerous is AI in the medical field?
In videos posted on social media, apparent doctors wearing white lab coats and a stethoscope around their necks frequently appear giving advice about natural remedies or tips on whitening teeth. But in many cases, these aren’t real doctors, but bots generated by artificial intelligence (AI) sharing medical advice with hundreds of thousands of followers. Not everything they say is true.
Can chia seeds help get a handle on diabetes?
Claim: One AI-generated bot on Facebook claimed that “Chia seeds can help get diabetes under control.” The video garnered over 40,000 likes, was shared more than 18,000 times, and generated over 2.1 million clicks.
DW fact check: False.
Chia seeds are trendy, thanks to the many positive active agents they contain. They contain unsaturated fatty acids, dietary fiber, essential amino acids, and vitamins. A 2021 report from the US found that chia seeds had a positive effect on consumers’ health. Participants with Type 2 diabetes and hypertension were found to have far lower blood pressure after ingesting a certain amount of chia seeds over several weeks. Another study from this year confirmed that chia seeds had antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory properties, among other things.
So, chia seeds can have positive health effects for people struggling with diabetes. “But nobody said anything about a cure,” Andreas Fritsche, a diabetologist at Tübingen University Hospital, told DW. He explained that there was no scientific evidence that chia seeds could cure diabetes or help get it completely under control.
But the video not only spread fake information, it also portrayed a phony doctor. Social media abounds with such false doctors sharing supposed hacks for good health. Sometimes, artificially generated “doctors” also share beauty tips with household remedies that supposedly make teeth whiter or stimulate beard growth.
Many of these videos are in Hindi, even if most bear English titles in their usernames. A 2021 Canadian study found that India had become a hotspot for false information on health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data shows that India had an even higher circulation of disinformation concerning the pandemic than countries like the US, Brazil or Spain. The study argued this could be due to India’s higher internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption, and — in some cases — users’ lower digital competence.
