Almost three in 10 Britons now use AI chatbots to get health advice, recent polling suggests. But UK medical-policy experts are warning that the growing trend may create confusion and undermine trust in GPs and other healthcare workers.

The Academy of Medical Sciences’ call for caution coincides with OpenAI’s rollout of ChatGPT Health in the US. The company claims the new feature “allows users to securely connect medical records and wellness apps” to provide more personalised insights and allow them to “take a more active role” in their health.

‘Zero awareness of fallibility’
ChatGPT Health is not yet available in the UK, but with more than 300 million people worldwide regularly directing their health-related questions to ChatGPT, it could swiftly become a “democratising force in healthcare”, Tanzeem Choudhury, a health-innovation expert at New York’s Cornell University, told CBS News. Yet there are risks and trade-offs, said former Public Health England medical director Yvonne Doyle.
“Used well”, an AI tool such as this can “help direct people to trusted sources”, she said on the Academy of Medical Sciences website. But it can also mislead “convincingly” and “exploit uncertainty”.

The “danger” with an AI chatbot is that it has “zero awareness of its own fallibility” and always provides an answer “even when one doesn’t exist”, said Celina Cartoto and Anthony Kelly on RTE. Users need to remember that although it “speaks like a doctor, listens like a therapist and remembers like a friend”, it is actually “none of them”.

Privacy concerns
Addressing another key concern of critics, OpenAI has said that Health has “enhanced privacy” and encryption, and that conversations used in the Health tab won’t flow into non-Health chats. But it’s no accident that Health has not yet been rolled out in the UK and the EU, where data protection and digital privacy laws are stricter than in the US.

It all comes down to whether “you trust OpenAI to keep to its word”, Robert Wachter, a medic who has written extensively about AI and healthcare, told Time magazine. OpenAI has a “really strong corporate interest in not screwing this up”. Its brand is “dependent” on the user “feeling comfortable” in sharing their information, and any sort of data breach would end that trust.

“To Do. Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil,” read a note written by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a cabinet meeting on Friday. Yesterday he confirmed on X that the US had participated in “coordinated foreign exchange actions” with the Japanese government to counter “disorderly yen movements”.

The yen has sunk to a 40-year low against the dollar in recent weeks, in the latest milestone in Japan’s economic decline. But having traded at ¥163 to the dollar on Thursday, the yen has strengthened to ¥155 to the dollar since the intervention. Donald Trump claimed the joint move would be “good for the world economy”. But some analysts believe the intervention will best serve America’s interests.

Why is the yen so weak?
Japan, the world’s fourth biggest economy, has “long struggled with a weak yen”, said CNN. After suffering recession and “chronic deflation” in the 1990s, Japan has kept interest rates much lower than other developed economies. In April, the Bank of Japan increased its rate to 1% – the highest since 1995 – while the US rate usually lies between 3.5% and 3.75%. Such low rates are intended to stimulate consumer spending, but they are much less attractive to international investors. Other issues, including a “decades-long slide in its working-age population”, substantial government debt and low productivity, have also hampered economic growth, said the BBC.

What’s in it for Trump?
The Japanese government has been buying up yen, thereby “raising the value of their currency”, said The Guardian. But to pay for this, Japan has been selling off US government bonds, which are kept by many countries as a “store of national wealth”. If these bonds are sold quickly and in large quantities, it can lead to a rise in the interest rate that the US pays on its debt, making it more expensive for the US to borrow money.

Is this a sign of things to come?
Both sides have announced they would not hesitate to participate in further joint interventions. Within Japan, there is concern that spending plans announced by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (pictured above with Trump) will put further pressure on the currency. A two-year cut in sales tax on food and soft drinks from 8% to 1% is intended to ease cost-of-living pressures. However, the policies could instead “strain public finances and rattle markets”, said the Financial Times.

A woman eats a melting ice cream in front of an anti-US billboard in Enghelab Square in central Tehran. Iran has denied that any negotiations with Washington are taking place, after Donald Trump claimed that new peace talks would begin today.

Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Images

A sweet, icy treat is just the thing when temperatures peak on a hot summer’s day. From fruity to creamy to outrageously chocolatey, here are some of the coolest-tasting supermarket options around.

Waitrose No 1 Santo Domingo Chocolate Ice Cream
Supermarket ice creams no longer come with a regulation “cocktail of gums and emulsifiers”, said Tom Hunt in The Guardian. Brands are using “fewer additives” and prioritising a more “rich and complex” taste – and Waitrose has really hit the mark with this “dark and deeply chocolatey” tub.

Häagen-Dazs Matcha Ice Cream
This one is for “devotees of the powdered tea”, said Giulia Crouch in The Times. Where most similar products tend to “fall short”, the Häagen-Dazs version “delivers big time”, even for a “matcha snob”, with a “proper hit of green tea flavour” and “sweet, grassy, slightly bitter notes”.

Hackney Gelato Banana Caramel & Pecan Gelato
This “deservingly” won two stars in the Great Taste Awards 2024, said Crouch in The Times, and the flavour combination still “plays beautifully” for me. The “deep, buttery richness” of caramel pairs wonderfully with the “sweet creaminess of the banana”. A sprinkle of toasted pecans adds a layer of “welcome crunch”.

M&S Pineapple, Coconut & Lime Ice Lollies
Ice cream may be what you crave when the temperature rises, but your body actually generates more “metabolic heat” when it works to digest food, said Sophie Morris in The i Paper. Fortunately, lollies are “mostly made from sugar, water, fruit juice and flavourings”, so there isn’t as much to digest. These M&S ones are a “frozen dream” of “pineapple juice, coconut milk, sugar and lime juice”.

The school summer holiday should be capped at a month
Allison Pearson in The Telegraph
When I was a child and school broke up summer, we “played out” while “a network of ‘aunties’ kept an eye”, writes Allison Pearson. But now, many families have “both parents in employment” and “few children would be allowed to roam freely”, so the six-week break has become a costly “logistical nightmare”. We should shorten it, moving a week to Christmas, when it’s “easier” for parents “to piece together the leave they need to be with the children”.

Let’s rekindle capitalism with a conscience
Tony Sewell in The Times
“We have convinced ourselves” that “making money is evil”, writes Tory peer Tony Sewell, and that “you can’t have social stability alongside great wealth”. But Quaker businessmen Cadbury, Rowntree, Fry and Clark showed that “profit and moral responsibility” to “workers, communities and society need not be at odds”. When we talk now of levelling up, we need to remember that “commercial success and social conscience” can genuinely reinforce one another”.


What your hotel room behaviour reveals about you
Polly Hudson in The i Paper
“You don’t really know someone” until you “see how they treat their hotel room”, writes Polly Hudson. I always tidy mine because leaving it “looking like there has been a burglary says a lot about who you are” – and “none of it is good”. Then there’s unpacking etiquette: open the case and “let the contents explode out” or “hang up every single item”? Going away means “whoever you’re with” may forever hold “a single wrong move” against you. “Happy Holidays!”