ChatGPT's Response Consistency: A Study on Repeated Queries of Medical Examination Questions

Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2024 Mar 8;14(3):657-668. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe14030043.

Abstract

(1) Background: As the field of artificial intelligence (AI) evolves, tools like ChatGPT are increasingly integrated into various domains of medicine, including medical education and research. Given the critical nature of medicine, it is of paramount importance that AI tools offer a high degree of reliability in the information they provide. (2) Methods: A total of n = 450 medical examination questions were manually entered into ChatGPT thrice, each for ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4. The responses were collected, and their accuracy and consistency were statistically analyzed throughout the series of entries. (3) Results: ChatGPT 4 displayed a statistically significantly improved accuracy with 85.7% compared to that of 57.7% of ChatGPT 3.5 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, ChatGPT 4 was more consistent, correctly answering 77.8% across all rounds, a significant increase from the 44.9% observed from ChatGPT 3.5 (p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: The findings underscore the increased accuracy and dependability of ChatGPT 4 in the context of medical education and potential clinical decision making. Nonetheless, the research emphasizes the indispensable nature of human-delivered healthcare and the vital role of continuous assessment in leveraging AI in medicine.

Keywords: ChatGPT; artificial intelligence; indecisiveness; medical state examination questions; response consistency.

Grants and funding

We acknowledge support by the German Research Foundation Projekt-Nr. 512648189 and the Open Access Publication Fund of the Thueringer Universitaets—und Landesbibliothek Jena.