New AI tools can record your medical appointment or draft a message from your doctor

Dr Lance Owens demonstrating the use of an AI tool on a smartphone in Wyoming, Michigan. The software listens to a doctor-patient conversation, documents and organizes it to write a clinical note. — University of Michigan Health-West via AP

Don’t be surprised if your doctors start writing you overly friendly messages. They could be getting some help from artificial intelligence.

New AI tools are helping doctors communicate with their patients, some by answering messages and others by taking notes during exams. It’s been 15 months since OpenAI released ChatGPT. Already thousands of doctors are using similar products based on large language models. One company says its tool works in 14 languages.