ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence for Medical Education: Potential Impact and Opportunity

Abstract

ChatGPT has ushered in a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) that already has significant consequences for many industries, including health care and education. Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, refer to AI that is designed to create or generate new content, such as text, images, or music, from their trained parameters. With free access online and an easy-to-use conversational interface, ChatGPT quickly accumulated more than 100 million users within the first few months of its launch. Recent headlines in the popular press have ignited concerns relevant to medical education over the possible implications of cheating and plagiarism in assessments as well as excitement over new opportunities for learning, assessment, and research. In this Scholarly Perspective, the authors offer insights and recommendations about generative AI for medical educators based on literature review, including the AI literacy framework. The authors provide a definition of generative AI, introduce an AI literacy framework and competencies, and offer considerations for potential impacts and opportunities to optimize integration of generative AI for admissions, learning, assessment, and medical education research to help medical educators navigate and start planning for this new environment. As generative AI tools continue to expand, educators need to increase their AI literacy through education and vigilance around new advances in the technology and serve as stewards of AI literacy to foster social responsibility and ethical awareness around the use of AI.