The Role of ChatGPT, Generative Language Models, and Artificial Intelligence in Medical Education: A Conversation With ChatGPT and a Call for Papers

Abstract

ChatGPT is a generative language model tool launched by OpenAI on November 30, 2022, enabling the public to converse with a machine on a broad range of topics. In January 2023, ChatGPT reached over 100 million users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application to date. This interview with ChatGPT is part 2 of a larger interview with ChatGPT. It provides a snapshot of the current capabilities of ChatGPT and illustrates the vast potential for medical education, research, and practice but also hints at current problems and limitations. In this conversation with Gunther Eysenbach, the founder and publisher of JMIR Publications, ChatGPT generated some ideas on how to use chatbots in medical education. It also illustrated its capabilities to generate a virtual patient simulation and quizzes for medical students; critiqued a simulated doctor-patient communication and attempts to summarize a research article (which turned out to be fabricated); commented on methods to detect machine-generated text to ensure academic integrity; generated a curriculum for health professionals to learn about artificial intelligence (AI); and helped to draft a call for papers for a new theme issue to be launched in JMIR Medical Education on ChatGPT. The conversation also highlighted the importance of proper “prompting.” Although the language generator does make occasional mistakes, it admits these when challenged. The well-known disturbing tendency of large language models to hallucinate became evident when ChatGPT fabricated references. The interview provides a glimpse into the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT and the future of AI-supported medical education. Due to the impact of this new technology on medical education, JMIR Medical Education is launching a call for papers for a new e-collection and theme issue. The initial draft of the call for papers was entirely machine generated by ChatGPT, but will be edited by the human guest editors of the theme issue.