Who bears liability when AI gives bad prescribing advice.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42277191.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41746-026-02854-5 and PMC identifier 13261039.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
AI chatbots increasingly provide patients with prescribing-level advice, often without physician involvement. Under US law, we argue that the learned intermediary doctrine, which has long governed drug-manufacturer liability for failure to warn, operates differently across two emerging pathways: AI behind the clinician, and AI advising patients directly. The more urgent implication lies elsewhere, under ordinary medical malpractice: clinicians may be required to screen patients for AI-sourced prescribing advice.