From Dr. Google to Dr. AI: medical misinformation, clinical trust, and ethical responsibility in contemporary medicine

Del Dr. Google al Dr. IA: desinformación médica, confianza clínica y responsabilidad ética en la medicina contemporánea

Resumen

Generative artificial intelligence has rapidly entered health information seeking among patients, caregivers, students, and professionals. Its ability to produce immediate, personalized, and persuasive answers offers opportunities for health literacy, medical education, and clinical communication. However, it also creates an emerging form of medical misinformation: content that is technically plausible and linguistically convincing yet potentially erroneous, incomplete, biased, or fabricated. This critical reflection article analyzes the transition from “Dr. Google” to “Dr. AI” and discusses its implications for patient safety, the physician-patient relationship, equity, medical education, and ethical governance. It argues that primary care and professional training should incorporate digital curation, critical verification, and clinical communication competencies regarding artificial intelligence, avoiding both technophobic rejection and uncritical adoption of systems that remain insufficiently validated.