Man develops rare toxic condition after using ChatGPT for diet advice

A medical case study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has highlighted the dangers of using AI for health information, after a man developed a rare condition following an interaction with the chatbot for removing table salt from his diet.

The 60-year-old man developed bromism, also known as bromide toxicity after consulting ChatGPT.

The patient has told doctors about the negative effects of sodium chloride, as he consulted ChatGPT to eliminate chloride from his diet and started taking sodium bromide for a three month period.

The article’s author from the University of Washington in Seattle highlighted this case as, “How the use of artificial intelligence can potentially contribute to the development of preventable adverse health outcomes.”

Nonetheless, authors have personally consulted ChatGPT themselves to know what happened if chloride could be replaced with, the response also included bromide. 

It did not provide any health warning and did not ask why the authors were seeking such information.

“As we presume a medical professional would do,” authors further added.

In this regard, authors have elucidated the serious challenges of consulting AI applications that could impact individuals’ life completely.

They said, “AI apps could generate scientific inaccuracies, lack the ability to critically discuss results, and ultimately fuel the spread of misinformation.

ChatGPT has shown concerns for this unusual happening. The company has announced a major upgrade of the chatbot last week and claimed health was one of its biggest strengths.

The upgraded version of the ChatGPT, now powered by the GPT-5 model would be more appropriate at answering health related questions and would be more proactive at “flagging potential concerns” such as serious mental issues.

While acknowledging the fact that AI could be a bridge between scientists and the public, this incident carried the risk of abstracted information and that it was highly improbable a medical professional would have suggested sodium bromide when a patient asked for replacement of table salt.

Doctors need to consider the use of AI when checking patients from where they have been obtaining information.

The AI tools have a vital role in broadening access to information, but there is no substitute for qualified medical advice.