My Mom and Dr. DeepSeek

Which would you choose: a two-day journey to speak with a healthcare specialist for a cursory five minutes, or endless access to AI-powered reassurance? Viola Zhou examines the complicated relationship between her mother, who struggles with complications from chronic kidney disease, and DeepSeek, one of China’s most popular AI chatbots, from which she seeks medical guidance and comfort. Zhou’s reporting does essential work here, tempering industry hype around the medical expertise of large language models. But it’s her close study of her mother—her isolation and uncertainty, her desire for support and resolution—that cinches this moving feature.

For patients like my mom, who feel they don’t get the time or care they need from their health care systems, these chatbots have become a trusted alternative. AI is being shaped into virtual physicians, mental-health therapists, and robot companions for the elderly. For the sick, the anxious, the isolated, and many other vulnerable people who may lack medical resources and attention, AI’s vast knowledge base, coupled with its affirming and empathetic tone, can make the bots feel like wise and comforting partners. Unlike spouses, children, friends, or neighbors, chatbots are always available. They always respond.

Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and even some doctors are now pitching AI as a salve for overburdened health care systems and a stand-in for absent or exhausted caregivers. Ethicists, clinicians, and researchers are meanwhile warning of the risks in outsourcing care to machines. After all, hallucinations and biases in AI systems are prevalent. Lives could be at stake.

Over the course of months, my mom became increasingly smitten with her new AI doctor. “DeepSeek is more humane,” my mother told me in May. “Doctors are more like machines.”