“Do We Really Want AI Going Over All This Information?”: Amazon’s AI-Powered Medical Visits Spark Debate

A viral video shared on X is drawing attention to Amazon One Medical's AI-powered Direct Message Care feature, raising questions about the role artificial intelligence could play in prescribing medication.

According to the video, Health AI takes over if you are interested in any of the prescription medications that Amazon shows on their website. The woman in the video says how she used it for her dermatological issues, since her dermatologist is not easy to get a hold of.

"Are we going to[sic] far and making prescription medication to[sic] available? Do we really want an AI going over all this information instead of a doctor from the beginning?" the post on X asks.

Should AI be used in the medical field this way?

It does raise concerns over the validity of an AI diagnosis. While AI can be trained to be able to learn symptoms, it does not contain the nuances that human doctors have. Not all conditions and diseases present the same. What is online is sometimes just a guide rather than a fact sheet.

Though the Amazon AI option does recommend being seen by a physician, it will still send over prescriptions to your local pharmacy or the Amazon pharmacy, sometimes in as quickly as a day.

So what is this AI getting from you? It is using your records, symptoms, and other information to evaluates responses before forwarding it to one of their providers. Currently it is used for issues like hair loss, sexual dysfunction, cold flu, UTI, dermatology, and eye conditions.

Several commenters pointed out that it isn't all AI, though. Said one, "It's just an intake/triage questionnaire. An actual licensed doctor reviews it and writes the prescription, not AI."

Another user discusses the classification of medication and how that factor should go into the decisions that are made. "Class A products the AI could sell based on the results of a carefully crafted questionnaire and AI review of the patient's medical history. Class B and C products would require increasing levels of human intervention before they can be prescribed," they said.

Commenters appeared divided on whether this is helping doctors, or actively hindering them. Though it makes things easier on the patient, what is it really doing for their doctor?

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made in the viral video. The article is based on the creator's account, publicly available information about Amazon One Medical, and comments shared on X.