Doctor's AI-generated medical leaflet containing derogatory patient language disclosed in South Korea
A physician at a pain management clinic in South Korea used AI to generate a patient guidance document, but the AI prompt containing derogatory language about the patient's intelligence and occupation was printed in the final document and given to the patient.
What happened
A physician at a pain management clinic used AI to generate a patient guidance document. The doctor entered a prompt that stated: 'The patient does not appear to have good intelligence and does a menial job, so please write it in an easy-to-understand way.'
The final printed document given to the patient contained the AI prompt verbatim at the top, including the derogatory language about the patient's intelligence and occupation.
Reported impact
The patient's adult child, identified as Aμ¨, discovered the offensive language in the document and reported feeling shock and distress. Aμ¨ stated that the patient was insulted and classified behind their back.
The incident sparked widespread public backlash on social media and online communities, with commenters criticizing the physician and questioning why such derogatory language was used in the AI prompt.
Index analysis
The failure to filter or review the AI-generated output before printing resulted in derogatory content reaching the patient. The AI system did not prevent the inclusion of the prompt text in the final document.
Online commenters, including medical professionals, noted that the physician could have simply requested 'easy-to-understand language' without including derogatory characterizations in the prompt.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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