The Rigged Game Big Tech Is Playing With Your Health

I went to the doctor recently. As a new patient, there was a six-week wait to secure an appointment with her. Luckily, my issue wasn't urgent, but if it was I would've been fucked. I probably would've ended up at urgent care or the ER, which would've cost me a fortune even with good insurance.

During my appointment, I asked the doctor a question about the long term effects of a medication, and she politely laughed and asked if I had looked that up on ChatGPT. I had indeed Googled it, although not through AI, which I sheepishly admitted  to her. She corrected the information I had found and reiterated that AI is wrong 60% of the time. Better to rely on a trained provider than AI University, she said.

This whole conversation was timely given how Republicans are currently trying to rollback health insurance subsidies to make accessing health care less affordable. It's even more timely because OpenAI just announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, which is an open source AI feature that asks you to submit your medical records and link your health apps for "personalized insights" free of charge.

Here's the game Big Tech is playing: Truth or Dare.

Truth: You can't afford healthcare.

Dare: Upload your private medical data and we’ll “help”.

But Big Tech and Republicans have rigged the game so that refusing to play means you just... don't get healthcare at all.

The Rules of a Rigged Game

In the classic game of truth or dare, you choose your risk. You decide whether to reveal a secret or take on a challenge. There's an element of agency and control.

ChatGPT Health eliminates that choice by capitalizing on the fact that Republicans have made real healthcare unaffordable, then presenting AI as your only option. ChatGPT Health is a specialized system that requests access to your medical records, health apps, fitness trackers, period tracking information, and mental health logs. It will take anything and everything you're willing to upload.

In exchange, it promises "personalized insights" about your health. It'll answer questions about symptoms, explain conditions, and offer guidance on medications.

But here's what that really means: You're uploading your complete health history to a for-profit tech company so their algorithm (wrong up to 60% of the time) can give you medical advice. And you're doing it because the alternative is waiting six weeks for an appointment, paying thousands for an ER visit, or never getting care at all.

It’s not hard to imagine why this feature would be popular. Over 40 million people already ask ChatGPT health questions daily, not because they trust its accuracy, but because they're desperate and it's free.

Truth: Republicans Made Healthcare Unaffordable on Purpose

Republicans are actively engineering this crisis. They're rolling back health insurance subsidies that millions depend on, refused Medicaid expansion in multiple states, spent years trying to gut the Affordable Care Act, and are restricting coverage for reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care, and preventive services.

Make healthcare so expensive and inaccessible that people have no choice but to seek alternatives. Silicon Valley arrives on cue, ready to monetize that desperation.

My six-week wait is the best case scenario. I also have insurance. Millions of Americans face the choice between rent and a doctor's visit, between groceries and medications. Now they're being offered a third option: give all your health data to OpenAI and let the chatbot figure it out.

Dare: Hand Over Your Data (And Your Rights)

When you upload your medical records to ChatGPT Health, you're handing over your most private information to a company that profits from data.

Every symptom. Every medication. Every mental health struggle. Every pregnancy test. Every period. All collected, and in our current legal landscape, all weaponizable.

We're living in post-Roe America where period tracking apps become evidence in criminal prosecutions, where states criminalize pregnancy outcomes, where seeking abortion care gets you investigated. And we're supposed to trust uploading our health histories to a private tech company is safe?

They will sell your data to brokers. Use it to inform insurance decisions and enable employment discrimination. Your data can be subpoenaed, hacked, or leaked. NONE OF THIS IS PROTECTED BY HIPAA.

This is the dare: trust a for-profit tech company with information that could be used to prosecute you, deny you coverage, or discriminate against you. Do it because you can't afford the alternative.

Truth: AI Is Wrong More Often Than It's Right

AI being wrong up to 60% of the time should be disqualifying. You wouldn't fly on a plane that crashes half the time or take medication that fails 60% of patients.

But when you can't afford a real doctor, a chatbot starts looking like your best option.

For people with insurance and access to care, ChatGPT Health might be a supplement. For the millions Republicans are pricing out of healthcare, it becomes their primary care provider. And when ChatGPT misses heart attack symptoms, gives dangerous drug interaction advice, or fails to recognize a medical emergency, people die.

Truth: Big Tech Profits From Republican Policy Violence

OpenAI launching ChatGPT Health now, as Republicans dismantle healthcare access, isn't a coincidence. It's a business model built on human suffering, profiting from a crisis one political party deliberately sustains.

Every person consulting AI instead of a doctor is a policy failure. OpenAI isn't benevolently solving the healthcare crisis. They're offering "free" solutions to extract comprehensive health data from millions of desperate people.

Dare: Imagine We Deserve Better

Here's the dare I'd rather take: demanding a world where we don't have to play this game at all. We need universal healthcare and a system where people can afford actual doctors instead of consulting algorithms with worse accuracy than a Magic 8-Ball.

We need politicians who expand access instead of restricting it. We need insurance that covers care instead of bankrupting people. We need a world where "I can't afford to see a doctor" is no longer a social norm.

Until then, Silicon Valley will keep selling "solutions" to problems they're happy to see persist. There's no money in fixing healthcare access, but plenty of profit in harvesting data while people suffer.

Nothing in life is free. And what we're paying for ChatGPT Health with our privacy, our safety, and our lives; a price far more than any of us should ever have to afford.

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Pari and Eve are public health professionals who have dedicated their 15-year careers to fighting for global reproductive rights. Their Instagram and TikTok accounts facilitate evidence-based learning on a range of sexual and reproductive health topics, highlighting the intersectionality of health with human rights and social justice. Some of their previous social media clients include: Reproductive Freedom For All, Plan C, Jen Psaki, and ACLU. In their professional careers, Pari and Eve have worked for the United Nations, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Planned Parenthood, Population Reference Bureau, CARE and more. They have served consulting clients such as the DC Abortion Fund and Emory University. For more on Pari and Eve, visit their website at www.pariandeve.com.

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