Doctors Gave AI Chatbots a Cognitive Test. Their Diagnosis? Early Dementia. [Video]

Israeli neurologists gave leading AI chatbots the same cognitive exam used to assess U.S. presidents’ mental fitness. Their December study was intended as a wisecrack for the jovial Christmas edition of The BMJ—but it found “real flaws” in the technology increasingly used to guide clinical decision-making, Dr. Roy Dayan, one of its authors, told Newsweek.

The BMJ is one of the world’s most rigorous medical journals, subjecting all articles to a thorough peer-review process. It holds those same standards for its Christmas edition, but features more creative, “light-hearted fare“—serious research with quirky or sarcastic undertones. This year, features examined how bedtime stories affect children’s health, why Norwegian emergency helicopters occasionally pick up polar bears and the inspiration for a British country love song to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.

Sometimes, the articles give a deeper look at the social issues that are top-of-mind for medical professionals. That was certainly the case for …