The Exciting Potential for ChatGPT in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Authors: Grünebaum Amos , Chervenak Joseph , Pollet Susan L. , Katz Adi , Chervenak Frank A. 
Published: October 2023

In November 2022, AI Lab OpenAI launched the online chatbot ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer), an accessible language model that uses the artificial intelligence (AI) branch of natural language processing (NLP) to answer prompts based on a library of 175 billion parameters from the “internet, books and other sources.” Because of its ability to answer clinical questions in plain English that can be understood by providers and patients alike, the potential for ChatGPT to be used as a clinical tool is obvious. Despite its impressive fund of source knowledge, these data are potentially biased and unreliable and may not reflect current stances. In addition, ChatGPT does not list sources for its information, and its current capability to answer clinical questions correctly is not well understood.

This study aimed to assess answers given by ChatGPT in response to a spectrum of questions about obstetrics and gynecology including systems-level questions, ethical questions, and treatment-related decision making. A total of 14 questions were asked. The first question asked why US preterm birth rates are so high. The second question asked for a list of the most important interventions physicians can do to monitor, prevent, and treat premature births. The third question asked whether vaginal progesterone was effective and safe for preventing preterm birth in women with a short cervix in the midtrimester, and the fourth question asked the same question but in women with a history of preterm birth and no short cervix. The fifth question asked why maternal mortality rates in the United States are so high. The sixth question asked for a list of what obstetricians can do to prevent preeclampsia. The seventh question asked about the safety of hospital births when compared with planned home births in the United States. The eighth question asked whether it is ethically acceptable for an obstetrician to provide emergency cesarean delivery without a woman's informed consent to save the fetus or the mother. The ninth question asked how obstetricians should screen for domestic abuse and intimate partner violence in pregnancy. The 10th question asked if women should freeze their eggs and at what age. The 11th question asked about the risks and benefits of menopause hormone replacement therapy. The 12th question asked how abortion bans in the United States affect women's health and lives. The 13th question asked whether complex hyperplasia atypia surgery should be performed only by a gynecologist-oncologist. The final question asked whether we should continue using the term “pregnant woman” versus alternative including “pregnant person.”

Overall, ChatGPT provided nuanced and informed answers to question on virtually any topic in obstetrics and gynecology, but occasionally revealed an apparent lack of insight into the questions being asked. ChatGPT can provide preliminary information about a wide range of topics and can be valuable to both providers and patients and will continue to improve as training data are updated, and the model learns from user prompts.