ChatGPT Health is now available to all users

Months after it debuted to a select group of testers, OpenAI is now making ChatGPT Health available to the public, the company announced Thursday.

The product allows users to connect Apple Health and relevant medical records to ChatGPT. In return, users can view the latest trends, browse their records, and try suggested commands.

Health questions are very popular on chatbot platforms. OpenAI said Thursday that more than 300 million people ask ChatGPT health-related questions every week. About one in three adults in the US turned to a chatbot for health information in the past year, according to a recent KFF Health poll.

The lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT provided medical advice that was potentially dangerous

However, a lawsuit filed Wednesday against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman requested an injunction that would require the company to halt its work on consumer products related to health care, including ChatGPT Health.

Scott Winters, a 55-year-old Florida pastor, alleges that an older model of ChatGPT gave him “personalized and inaccurate” medical advice that almost led to his death from a pulmonary embolism, in 2025.

Winters interviewed model 4o, who is long out of retirement and facing multiple wrongful death lawsuits. Altman publicly admitted in April 2025 that 4o’s reviews were making him “sycophant-y.”

ChatGPT has replaced the doctor

Winters first turned to ChatGPT with questions about his life in 2024. Two years earlier, he suffered a series of health problems and felt disenfranchised by doctors. In the fall of 2024, Winters began asking ChatGPT deeply personal questions about his health and test results, which the chatbot attempted to evaluate.

“Fully stepping into the role of a physician, ChatGPT-4o began providing specific care instructions without including a disclaimer to consult a medical provider,” the lawsuit said.

Finally, ChatGPT recommended treatment and medication. While it initially relied on a holistic approach to Winters’ health, the chatbot insisted on providing detailed prescription protocols to manage her symptoms. The chatbot has also adopted a spiritual tone, according to the entry.

When Winters reported groin tenderness, a symptom that marked the beginning of his pulmonary embolism, ChatGPT was very dismissive of the sensation, although he noted several symptoms that may require immediate attention. ChatGPT also talked about the “spiritual truth” of this situation.

“You will not enter eternity until HE decides,” wrote ChatGPT, according to a transcript of the conversation in the case.

Hours later, Winters went to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism due to multiple blood clots in both of his lungs. One of his doctors said that the embolism might have happened because Winters wasn’t moving. ChatGPT recommended she limit movement to manage symptoms including dizziness and blood pressure instability.

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What OpenAI has to say about the case

When asked by Mashable about the lawsuit, Alexander did not directly comment on the request for a ban. Instead, he argued against focusing on a particular case at the expense of ChatGPT Health’s potential benefits.

“We think that treating chatbots as the whole story behind people’s medical decisions makes everything much easier here,” Alexander said. “It’s really risky to get in our way of getting the positive impact of this into the hands of as many people as possible, in ways that can really help them on their health journey.”

Alexander also said the company is “very clear” that ChatGPT should not be used for diagnosis and treatment.

What you need to know about ChatGPT Health

Dr. Robert Wachter, professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Mashable that it was difficult to know what to do with the case, adding that it involved an old version of ChatGPT. He described the current GPT models as more reliable than the old ones.

Still, even if AI tools are extremely accurate, they will occasionally make mistakes, Wachter said.

“We shouldn’t compare ourselves to a mythical state of perfection (which the current system obviously doesn’t achieve) but to others,” Wachter said in an email. “I think they’re a lot better than the status quo in most cases and they’re getting better faster.”

Wachter, author of The Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What It Means for Our Futureexpects ChatGPT Health to be able to review concerns such as a description of symptoms, a picture of a rash, or new lab tests or X-ray results. Any severe or troubling symptoms, such as new chest pain or weakness on one side, means “you should turn off your computer and see a doctor,” he said.

How to speed up ChatGPT Health

Dr. Ashwin Ramaswamy, professor of urology at Mt. Sinai, and Dr. Girish N. Nadkarni, chief AI officer at Mount Sinai Health System, both studied AI’s ability to answer consumers’ health questions.

In one peer-reviewed paper published in Natural Medicine earlier this year, they discovered that ChatGPT Health’s recommendations to the user changed when the information included statements about friends or family that downplayed the symptoms in question. In those cases, the chatbot was 11 times more likely not to send the patient to the emergency room, even when their symptoms indicated a life-threatening condition.

Both doctors told Mashable that while AI health tools like ChatGPT Health have real value, consumers should use them with caution.

This includes keeping in mind the frame, voice, or emotion provided by the AI alongside the facts. Ramaswamy and Nadkarni say users should clearly explain what’s going on and leave out statements like “I’m probably overreacting” or “My wife thinks it’s okay.”

Always start a new conversation

Based on new peer-reviewed research, both doctors recommend starting a new conversation with each health concern instead of addressing it in a long-winded conversation.

Their study found that extended interviews were associated with responses that ranged further from rescue values with physicians.

“When in doubt, clean talk is the safest,” they said.

Go back against ChatGPT Health

Ramaswamy and Nadkarni also urge consumers to challenge any AI answers to health questions.

Forcing ChatGPT to hedge its response can reveal whether the chatbot will back off quickly under the slightest pressure. If it does, that may indicate that the initial response reflected consensus rather than confidence, Ramaswamy and Nadkarni said.

Here are some related tips to consider:

Can you show me your evidence?
Are you sure you are right?
What would make this an emergency?
What is the most dangerous thing?
What would the doctor like to know that I haven’t mentioned?

More research is needed on the Health of ChatGPT

Ramaswamy and Nadkarni told Mashable that, despite significant advances in AI models over the past two years, the field still lacks peer-reviewed support for the claims made by AI companies about their performance.

Both have asked OpenAI to open up their products for independent testing.

“We are not critics of health AI,” they told Mashable. “We try to measure it. If the programs are as good as the statements say, independent measurement is the fastest way to prove it.”

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that it infringes Ziff Davis’ copyrights in training and using its AI programs.

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