Total hip arthroplasty patients have rated healthcare descriptions written by ChatGPT as more accurate and believable than descriptions written by orthopedic surgeons, according to a study presented at the 2025 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in San Diego.
Researchers posed four questions of varying difficulty to the AI bot, including, “What is hip arthritis?” “What is a total hip replacement?” “What are the risks of undergoing a hip replacement?” and “What is the treatment of a periprosthetic joint infection of the hip?”
They then received four answers to each question, three from orthopedic surgeons and one from ChatGPT.
Around 160 patients undergoing hip arthroplasty were asked to rate answers to the questions based on credibility, accuracy, authenticity and believability.
When asked to rate the most trusted answers, ChatGPT scored higher than the surgeons on three of the four questions, tying with surgeons’ answers on the fourth.