AI-Generated Doctors Spread Fake Cures on TikTok, Experts Warn of Public Safety Risks

AI-generated 'doctors' peddling fake cures on TikTok are a 'huge danger', experts warn

A study found AI-generated content in 40% of the most-viewed health videos on the platform, and doctors say patients are already arriving confused and misinformed. The advice arrives in the confident cadence of a physician. Microwaving food in plastic gives you cancer, a spoonful of Coca-Cola mixed with onion will ease your pain, and a supplement called "Hyalethinap Plus Pro Max" will fix your hair, nails, and joints in one go. The doctor delivering it does not exist. A study published this month by Hallam, a UK digital marketing agency, found that AI-generated content appeared in 40% of the most-viewed health videos on TikTok, rising to 84% of the clips surfaced by searches for "health tips". The researchers analysed 1,198 videos, and the top AI-generated ones averaged 2.5 million views apiece. The findings land on a platform already thick with synthetic media. Nearly 60% of the videos TikTok shows new users are AI slop, a separate study found earlier this year, and dubious claims that AI outperforms doctors have already prompted warnings that patients could be misled at scale. The doctors quoted in the research were blunt about the stakes. "Platforms like TikTok must do more to stop the rise of dangerous fake medical advice," said Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of the British Medical Association council. Professor Frankie Swords, NHS England's national medical director, said many clinicians "are reporting an increasing number of patients who feel worried and confused due to false advice". Alex Ruani, a health misinformation researcher at University College London, was sharper still, describing the phenomenon as "industrialised exploitation of trust". The videos follow a recognisable template. A polished avatar, built with off-the-shelf tools, lip-syncs a script that blends plausible wellness tips with disproven myths and a pitch for a product that often does not appear to exist. Hallam found no online trace of "Hyalethinap Plus Pro Max", the anti-ageing remedy touted in one widely shared clip. Other clips recycle familiar cancer myths about microwaving food in plastic, deodorants, and sleeping near a phone. The pattern is rarely accidental. Many of the accounts exist to sell something, whether a branded supplement, an affiliate link, or a subscription, and the fabricated white coat is what does the persuading. The polish is the point, and so is the plausibility. This is not the first alarm. In February, the non-profit Science Feedback identified 18 such accounts within hours, several with hundreds of thousands of followers and videos reaching 14 million views. The avatars claimed that turmeric lowers high blood sugar and that raw cacao and beetroot "unclog your arteries", while pushing unproven supplements. Some cloned the faces of real physicians without consent, the kind of fakery that has spawned a small industry in deepfake detection. The scale has unsettled the medical establishment on both sides of the Atlantic. John Whyte, chief executive of the American Medical Association, warned in February that scammers were cloning "the faces and voices of real, credentialed physicians" and called for physician identity to be treated as a protected professional asset. He noted that one doctor's own mother had been taken in by a fabricated video featuring her daughter, a measure of how convincing the clips have become. The same tools that promise gains in AI-assisted healthcare are now being turned against the patients they were meant to serve. TikTok disputed the research. It said the findings came "from a marketing agency with commercial interests" and were "not an accurate reflection of our platform", adding that it removes harmful health misinformation and partners with the World Health Organization and the NHS. Its rules already prohibit both impersonation and misleading AI-generated content, and Science Feedback's investigation noted that the company takes down most violating material proactively. The gap is between the policy and the feed. The detection tools are improving, but the economics run the other way. One video app alone reportedly generates around 3 million clips a month, and accounts pulled for impersonation have been seen reappearing within the hour. The doctor may not be real, but the supplement sale is.

Misleading AI-generated doctors pose 'huge danger to public safety'

Research shows AI accounts are gaining millions of views on TikTok by spreading dubious health advice Misleading health claims online pose a "huge danger to public safety", experts have warned, after research has shown that AI-generated doctors are gaining millions of views on TikTok by spreading dubious health advice. The British Medical Association council deputy chair, Dr Emma Runswick, flagged the risks posed by AI accounts that "peddle medical myths and promote so-called miracle cures". "Platforms like TikTok must do more to stop the rise of dangerous fake medical advice ... otherwise, it is the public who could be paying the price with their health and perhaps even their lives," she added. AI-generated physicians were found to have spread disproven myths about cancer, including that microwaving food in plastic, using deodorants and sleeping next to your phone could all cause cancer - all claims which have been refuted by Cancer Research UK. The research was published this month by Hallam, a digital marketing agency. It follows warnings by the NHS that health misinformation on social media was a "real threat to public health". The research found that AI-generated content appeared in 40% of top health-related TikTok videos, with most posted by a growing number of deepfake influencer accounts designed to resemble real doctors. For some specific search terms, such as "health tips", 84% of videos were classed as AI-generated or AI-assisted content. According to Hallam, top AI-generated doctor and health videos in their search received an average of 2.5m views. TikTok took down examples of the videos that were sent to the platform by the Guardian. The accounts also promoted bizarre remedies for various health problems, including Coca-Cola mixed with onion as a pain-relief remedy and a fake product called "Hyalethinap Plus Pro Max" as an anti-ageing solution. One avatar claimed he had recommended "Hyalethinap Plus Pro Max" to his patients for years, and that it could combat "hair loss, skin weakening, brittle nails and joint pain" by helping the body produce "anti-ageing molecules naturally". The Guardian could not find evidence of "Hyalethinap Plus Pro Max" products online. In response to the findings, Prof Frankie Swords, the national medical director at NHS England, said it was concerning to see a rise in online medical misinformation. "Many clinicians are reporting an increasing number of patients who feel worried and confused due to false advice that has been made solely for clicks," she added. Prof Victoria Tzortziou Brown, the president of the Royal College of GPs, said she was also concerned by the research, adding that misleading AI content carried a "real risk" of harm. Hallam analysed 1,198 videos, selecting the top 50 videos across a series of search terms including "health tips" and "doctor advice". It also looked for general "life-impacting" advice on issues such as personal finance and education. Alex Ruani, health misinformation researcher at UCL, said the rise of AI doctor videos represented a "frightening amount of exposure to fake medical content". "We're looking at industrialised exploitation of trust," she added. Last year, a poll conducted by Savanta on 3,575 men and 3,832 women aged 18 and above in England on behalf of patient champion Healthwatch England found that about one in five people were using social media for health information. William Pett, interim director of policy and public affairs at Healthwatch England, said: "Without the skills to distinguish reliable information from commercial hype or misinformation, [people] risk being misled in ways that can seriously affect their health." A TikTok spokesperson said: "These findings from a marketing agency with commercial interests are not an accurate reflection of our platform." "The facts are that we remove harmful health misinformation, including when it's AI-generated, we partner with the World Health Organization and the NHS on providing reliable health information in-app, and we continually invest in AI literacy resources and labelling technologies."

That Wellness Influencer You Follow May Be AI. Here's How To Tell.

At some point during the day, most people log on to a social media platform. According to Pew Research Center, a whopping 84% of adults use YouTube, 71% of American adults use Facebook and 50% use Instagram. On these sites and others, people are fed video after video of anything from shopping hauls to recipes to more problematic content that has a goal of tricking people into believing or buying certain things. The problem? Not all of these videos are real. The "health influencer" you're following on TikTok may actually be an AI avatar created by an unknown company trying to sell you a product. A recent New York Times investigation found hundreds and hundreds of AI videos on social media starring AI "influencers" made to look like medical professionals or health-conscious wellness advocates. The fake people in these videos are often selling supplements designed to treat chronic pain or cure diseases, and these claims are often targeted toward older women. The products aren't FDA-approved and, in some cases, lead to more health problems for users or are just a total waste of money. AI videos and AI avatars are getting harder and harder to tell apart from real videos and real people, said Alex Hamerstone, the advisory solutions director at TrustedSec, an ethical hacking company. "It's almost impossible these days to tell. Six months or a year ago, we talk about looking at the hands or things that AI was not as good at generating, but these days, it's really almost impossible," Hamerstone said, before adding that the small phone screens that many people use when accessing Facebook, TikTok and Instagram make it even harder. So, what can you do? How can you protect yourself from falling victim to an AI health scam on social media? Here's what experts say: First, if the health promises in the video sound too good to be true, they probably are. Emily DeJeu, an assistant teaching professor of business communications at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and expert in AI for business communication, said there's one test she likes to use when considering any kind of health solution -- "this economics principle that people learn in high school; there's no such thing as a free lunch, which captures that idea. If it sounds too good to be true, then it's definitely not true." "Or it's true, but the good part is much more fraught," DeJeu added. For instance, if you have a chronic health condition that hasn't been cured by medical interventions, but someone (or an AI avatar) on social media says a pill or supplement can fix it, it is not true. "If it sounds miraculous, immediately activate extreme skepticism ... [that's] probably a good way to go," said DeJeu. Actual health solutions tend to be the boring things you've heard a million times, noted DeJeu: things like exercise, a healthy diet, quality sleep, regular doctor visits, health screenings and taking your prescriptions. If there's pressure to buy something quickly, that's another red flag. There are a few red flags you should look out for when faced with health advice online. One is the pressure to immediately buy something, said Shannon Kooker, the vice president of clinical excellence and patient safety at ECRI, an independent patient care and health care quality organization. "Like 'limited-time offer,' or 'for the first 20 people.' This is buyer-beware advice that you could apply to anything you're going to buy online, but especially when it comes to your health," added Kooker. More, if you're seeing testimonials on social media without real names or medical credentials, the claims also likely aren't true, Kooker said. "And I know it's hard to validate medical credentials, but just [look] for those things," she said. You can use sites such as Certification Metters to check and see if someone is board-certified. AI can play a role in your health, but it should never be treated as a decision-maker. Always talk to a medical professional before starting any health treatments. Kooker said she supports AI and believes it can be a "reasonable starting point for general education, but [AI] should never be the final word on anything that affects real treatment decision." Kooker recommends "that the public treat any AI-generated or influencer health claim the way you treat a stranger's advice." "So -- 'yes, that's interesting. It's given me a lot to think about,' but it's not a substitute for professional medical opinion," she added. You should talk to your doctor about the claim you saw online, or, if you don't have access to a doctor, talk to your local pharmacist, Kooker said. If you do fall for some AI-backed health scam online (or any scam, for that matter), report it, added Hamerstone. If you come across these fake videos on social media, report it to Meta, for example, he noted. "Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they'll be taken down. But really, if you fall for something, make sure you report it, whatever that means to you," Hamerstone said. "So, whether it's letting your friends know they shouldn't do this ... when people fall for some kind of scam, they never want to talk about it because they feel embarrassed," he said, "and I just think it's important people know that you're the victim and you should make sure you get help." Deep levels of mistrust in authority, and health care in this case, allows these AI influencers to take off. We're living in times of "historic, unprecedented levels of mistrust in conventional authority," said DeJeu. Trust in experts, such as doctors and scientists, has been undermined for decades and is being felt today in many ways, not the least of which being the anti-vaccine rhetoric making its way to the most powerful parts of health care in this country as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has a history of being anti-vaccine, sits at the head of the Department of Health and Human Services. We're now at a point where people listen to what their doctor says, but then go on to do their own research online. That isn't always a bad thing and things like second opinions can be valuable, but only if that second opinion is from a medical professional, not an avatar on TikTok. "I think maybe the rise of the AI grift fake influencers is an opportunity to revisit that and really have people think about that," DeJeu said, referring to the distrust in doctors and health care professionals. Doctors were once seen as beacons of truth and the best place to go for our health, and while they still are that for many people, that isn't the case for all. "I feel like we've moved away from that because the internet democratizes information and everyone can do their own research, but I do think AI just greatly complicates that because even the smartest people can be duped because we are emotional and we're afraid," added DeJeu. Again, these AI avatars on social media often prey on people who are in pain or suffering from other health issues. "I think this certainly offers an opportunity to return to recognizing that we have credible voices around wellness and health, especially in the U.S. where we've got world-class medicine here," DeJeu said. "We could take advantage of that and lean into those experts -- and AI maybe would provide an incentive to do that again," said DeJeu. Kooker added, "healthcare is really complex, but the bottom line is we're humans caring for humans. Chatbots ... or these AI personas out there, they can't replace the expertise, the education and the experience of medical professionals." We don't currently have federal regulations for AI, which some experts say is dangerous in terms of privacy and safety. (The supplements industry is also not regulated by the FDA.) "This could be different," said DeJeu, "We could regulate this differently than we do, but we already have a more hands-off approach to regulating the internet." "This hands-off approach to the internet, I think especially in 2026, we could say this has not borne great fruit," she added. "And, we have a pretty hands-off approach when it comes to wellness ... the whole supplements industry ... you can sell a lot of stuff and say whatever you want, and it's not until it really hurts somebody or kills somebody, that you get in trouble," DeJeu noted.