We’ve heard many stories about how AI has become increasingly responsible for spreading misinformation, whether in politics, health information or otherwise. But did you know that AI can be used to combat misinformation too? In this episode we chat with Amelia Burke Garcia, Director at the Center for Health Communication Science at NORC at the University of Chicago and Rebecca Soskin Hicks, Pediatrician and Fellow at NORC. We discuss their new initiative to create health communication using AI. Their thesis is that AI can be the next form of opinion leader like social media influencers have been so far. We discuss the theory behind this thesis, how this AI model gets trained and interacts with humans, what the ethical concerns are. As a clinician Rebecca discusses the barriers to entry for using AI in her practice and we talk about the future of the study and share some contemporary tips for identifying health misinformation online.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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