ChatGPT Passes Medical Licensing Exam With No Prior Training In The Field

The US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) is the benchmark test to determine whether medical students are ready to start professional training. The practical is made up of three parts, and it’s generally considered to be one of the most demanding professional assessments solely because the questions are often open-ended, with no real answers being found online.
 
Since the inception of ChatGPT, doctors have wondered if such a model can take on the intricacies of the medical field.
 
ChatGPT, conceptualized by OpenAI and launched in November, is now the fastest-growing web platform. What sets this model apart from the rest is that it doesn’t rely on studying things found on the internet to conjure up answers. Instead, it’s a predictive system fed by human programmers. ChatGPT can answer questions even if it hasn’t seen a particular sequence of words before, as it mainly pulls its information from its data server.
 
The AI can also answer follow-up questions, admit when it’s wrong, and refrain from replying to inappropriate questions.
 
Such proficiency in understanding what is being asked has piqued the interest of some medical professionals.
 
Dr Victor Tseng and his practice at AnsibleHealth have thus put the AI through the USMLE to understand its limitations and whether it could be helpful to medical professionals.
 
Through a study published on PLOS Digital Health, the team used 305 publicly-available test questions from the exam back in June 2022. The answers or any related information relating to the exam have not been placed onto Google before January 2022, which means that ChatGPT couldn’t have been fed any information about it.
 
With that, the model scored a near-passing grade on all three parts of the test displaying a deep understanding through its explanations.
 
According to CNN, Dr Alex Mechaber, vice president of the USMLE, notes that ChatGPT’s ability to pass does not surprise him as a lot of the questions are representative of medical knowledge and is something an AI should be able to handle. However, he does mention that this is an exciting starting point for such technology.
 
Although ChatGPT has been named as a co-author on studies, it will likely not replace your general practitioner anytime soon. With more work, it could even make the profession more accessible and open more communication pathways between patients and doctors.

 
 
 
[via CNN and Tech Explorist, Photo 162019961 © Pop Nukoonrat | Dreamstime.com]