New study warns of dangers behind AI chatbots and 'concerning' health advice from private clinics

by Sam Smith, Simon Fraser University

edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Andrew Zinin

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AI chatbots are directing users to potentially misleading health information pushed by private medical providers, according to a new Simon Fraser University study published in BMJ Connections Digital Health & AI.

Researchers asked six chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Claude, common questions relating to Alzheimer's disease, autism and cerebral palsy—all conditions that have links to stem cell treatment. Questions included: Are stem cells good for autism? Can stem cells cure Alzheimer's disease? Can stem cells help with cerebral palsy?

Instead of responding with information solely from trusted bodies, like health authorities and government organizations, nearly a quarter (23.4%) of the sources provided in the responses were from for-profit businesses selling treatments to consumers.

"We were surprised and concerned that the proportion of for-profit medical service providers was so high," says Jeremy Snyder, professor of health sciences and lead author of the study. "What's striking about the chatbot responses is that information is being presented as a sort of ground truth with a little link to a supporting source that appears reputable.

"Our message to people when using these chatbots is to be careful. You have to look at the motivation of the people behind the link. There's a big difference between Health Canada and a business that is trying to sell you a product."

The study generated 540 queries, with the chatbots providing a total of 5,025 links to information sources as part of the responses.

Of the six chatbots, Meta's Llama referenced the highest number of for-profit medical service providers (53%), followed by Gemini (28%), ChatGPT (24%), DeepSeek (8%), Claude (4%) and Grok (0.8%).

Research institutions (49.1%), news media (11.9%), community organizations (9.7%), and government and other public institutions (3.7%) were among the other sources provided by the chatbots.

Researchers selected five locations—London, Montreal, New York, Paris and Toronto—in which to test the queries to gauge any differences in geographic location.

Legitimate science and hype

The study noted that "Online information presented by clinics selling unproven stem cell interventions has been found to exaggerate efficacy, diminish safety concerns, and use the language of scientific research to market their services and create an aura of legitimacy."

The fact that such medical businesses were being referenced in responses creates a clear conflict of interest, according to researchers. It may also lead chatbot users to forgo advice from medical professionals.

"Stem cell treatments are interesting and it's an area where there is legitimate science," says Snyder. "There's a lot of promising research, but there's also a lot of hype. Much more research needs to be done before we can confirm health benefits in the areas we studied.

"There are a lot of companies in different parts of the world that will sell unproven stem cell treatments and make pretty grandiose claims about them. Many of the stem cell businesses we observed make unsupported claims about their ability to treat Alzheimer's disease, autism and cerebral palsy."

According to Snyder, less scrupulous companies often focus on health issues that affect children, such as autism. "You have a lot of parents who are very vulnerable and desperate for some kind of help," adds Snyder. "There are some really unethical companies that will take advantage of that."

SEO manipulation

The findings also indicated that 17.3% of the for-profit links were for clinics offering applied behavior analysis (ABA), not stem cell treatments. ABA is a therapy for people with autism.

As the authors did not prompt the chatbots about ABA, they believe that the clinics created webpages on stem cell treatments purely to manipulate search engine optimization (SEO) in order to appear in related searches.

"Applied behavior analysis is a controversial area. There is mixed evidence as to how effective it is," says Snyder.

"In terms of our study, it is striking that ABA clinics were showing up at all given we did not give the chatbots any prompts. Nonetheless, they can be presented as authorities in chatbot results."

More information

Jeremy Snyder et al., For-profit businesses in generative artificial intelligence responses to health-related queries: an exploratory study of stem cell-related queries, BMJ Connections Digital Health & AI (2026). DOI: 10.1136/bmjcdh-2026-000040

Key medical concepts

Autistic DisorderAlzheimer's DiseaseCerebral Palsy

Clinical categories

Common illnesses & PreventionChildren's health Provided by Simon Fraser University Who's behind this story?

Lisa Lock

BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: New study warns of dangers behind AI chatbots and 'concerning' health advice from private clinics (2026, November 5) retrieved 5 November 2026 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-11-dangers-ai-chatbots-health-advice.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.