One in five general practitioners (GPs) in the UK have already incorporated AI into their clinical practice, despite a lack of any formal policies or guidance on how to use these tools.

This has been revealed in a new UK-wide survey, published by the British Medical Journey, with a sample size of 1,000 GPs taken in an online survey in February 2024.

Of the one in five respondents that reported using generative AI in their clinical practice, more than one in four (29%) reported using these tools for document generation after a patient appointment.

A similar proportion (28%) said they used the tools to suggest a differential diagnosis, and one in four (25%) said they used the tools to suggest treatment options.

While researchers did say that the survey may not be representative of UK GPs as a whole, as those who responded may been keenly interested in AI, it does raise some alarm bells as the use of AI by medical professionals is currently not regulated.

“These findings signal that GPs may derive value from these tools, particularly with administrative tasks and to support clinical reasoning. However, we caution that these tools have limitations since they can embed subtle errors and biases,” researchers say.

“[These tools] may also risk harm and undermine patient privacy since it is not clear how the internet companies behind generative AI use the information they gather.

“While these chatbots are increasingly the target of regulatory efforts, it remains unclear how the legislation will intersect in a practical way with these tools in clinical practice.”

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AI tools like ChatGPT are connected to the internet, so are often capable of producing updated information. However, generative AI often have their own issues, like hallucinating false claims as facts.

Privacy risks can also not be understated, particularly in the medical field, as many AI models use their users prompts and conversations for training. This may inadvertently give patient data over to the AI system, which should remain private.

However, the use of AI by doctors for document generation and other means may point to the heightened pressures of a squeezed NHS system, as patients and staff grapple with increased waittimes and shortened appointment times.