Leprosy Mailing List – February 6, 2026
Ref.: (LML) Information is not the same as knowledge. Be aware of AI-generated overviews
From: Pieter Schreuder, Maastricht, the Netherlands
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Dear colleagues,
Recently in LML advisory Board we had a discussion about AI and information about leprosy. We would like to hear from the members their views about this subject. Below we are sharing some points of our discussion.
When one goes directly to the websites of WHO and ILEP and chooses from the menu the topic you want to know about, and most likely you will bypass AI-generated overviews. However, if you type, like I did last month, "WHO/ILEP World Leprosy Day 2026" the first reaction which appeared was an AI overview. We assume that when posing questions directly on internet (and not open a specific website first) more and more AI-generated answers will appear.
Ben Naafs:
"I have followed a course for medical AI. It was said that that AI-generated answers (to medical questions) was less then 10% right. 30% partly and 60% rubbish. In leprosy I got my own text back from an article I had written. That at least was right. If fed with the right information it could be correct. AI from DuckDuckGo (DuckDuckGo is an independent alternative that also let you search and browse the web, but don't track your searches or browsing history) was slightly better. And AI supplied by a dermatologist redacted website was more than 80 % right.
From my course I learned that every new issue is worse because the AI learns from what these sites are fed by the questions asked before. Typing: "Salvatore Noto and leprosy" I got a beautiful answer about the paper he wrote about the diagnosis of leprosy, and the answer was 95% correct. Even LML was mentioned."
Sunil Deepak:
"What I hear is that AI summaries about medical issues are reasonably correct. A friend who is part of a team of psychiatrists running a practice in USA said that they are receiving less patients because less people are accessing their website. He thinks that they will have to pay to get people referred to them. Another friend, who is a lawyer in Italy said that AI summary about legal matters is very unreliable and needs to be check carefully everything it says. My personal experience about a bus-service in a nearby town also showed that AI information given about it was completely wrong.
Whatever, we may think, I think that in future AI mediation for access to information is going to play a big role in informing people on different subjects. I know of persons who put their symptoms on Google and it tells them the diagnosis. I have not tried it but we can try putting symptoms of leprosy on Google and see if it makes correct diagnosis and what kind of advice it gives.
AI information on leprosy may sometimes not be acceptable to a leprosy specialists, but probably they are okay for ordinary people most of the time. This is because a lot of books and websites about leprosy are open source and easily accessible to AI, so it can formulate better answers. I am not sure how it is going to change the need for a mailing list like LML."
Pieter:
"Be aware of AI-generated overviews "Information is not the same as knowledge". Especially nowadays, so-called information from some news agencies, government departments, institutions or organisations can be misleading (to say the least). Knowledge should be based on facts, or ideas, acquired by study, investigations, observations, or experience.
If a medical doctor gives you a wrong advice, you could sue him. If AI gives you a wrong advice, nobody and no company will be responsible."
Our question is what LML members views are about the quality of information given by AI on leprosy?
Regards,
Pieter
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LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << edit...@gmail.com
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