Stephanie Wang (Medicine) earned 2nd place at the 26th Annual Graduate & Professional Student Research Forum at UNLV for the poster presentation, “Investigating Artificial Intelligence in Bioethics and Medical Education: Can ChatGPT Answer Ethical Questions Appropriately?” Collaborating with Raul Saucedo, Kaitlin Hock, Timothy Shaw (all Medicine), Rosalie Kalili, Johan Bester, and Thomas Vida, the research examined ChatGPT's ethical reasoning abilities in medical scenarios. The team used ethical questions from the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV, comparing ChatGPT’s responses to expert evaluations. ChatGPT demonstrated alignment with established ethical standards in 95% of cases but struggled with complex issues, such as unconscious patients' wishes, the duty to warn, and adolescent healthcare decisions. Notably, it consistently highlighted ethical norms when presented with unethical scenarios. These results suggest ChatGPT’s potential in medical ethics education, underscoring its capability to support ethical decision-making with the caveat of necessary expert oversight for complex cases. This work indicates the importance of integrating AI with human judgment in medical ethics, showcasing the utility of machine learning and large language models in the essential role of human expertise.
