Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming increasingly popular and can be utilised by patients, healthcare professionals and students. The performance of chatbots can be variable between different AIs and, indeed, different topics. There is no current consensus for the best use of chatbots but, given their wide availability, this study proposed a series of questions from a variety of audiology topics to compare their answers. Three chatbots were evaluated: OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing Chat (now Copilot) and Google Bard (now Gemini). Ten questions were prepared. They ranged from basic (such as ‘what is an audiometric hearing test?’), intermediate (such as ‘what is an air-bone gap?’) and specialised (such as ‘what is the therapeutic management of acoustic neuroma?’). The responses were then assessed by the two authors and graded on a five-point Likert scale (one being extremely unsatisfactory and five being extremely satisfactory). They also assessed for any errors or inaccuracies and whether any sources were quoted by the chatbots. Most responses were rated as satisfactory or better; however, all chatbots generated at least a few errors or inaccuracies. ChatGPT had the highest overall score, while Bard was the worst. Bard was also the only chatbot unable to provide a response to one of the questions. ChatGPT was the only chatbot that did not provide information about its sources. The main limitation of this study is the subjectively rated responses of just two expert authors (based at the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland). The study outlines an interesting development of AI in our world. There are obvious positive and negative points but, with time, AI will adapt and the answers of yesterday may be different from tomorrow when asked again. They appear to give initial, conversation-based information that may be explored with patients or students. In time this may develop in different ways through collaboration.
Current AI audiology knowledge
Reviewed by Aaron Ferguson
Comparison of the Audiological Knowledge of Three Chatbots: Chat GPT, Bing Chat, and Bard.
