I Won’t Use AI Smart Health Features, for My Own Sake. Here’s Why

A few years ago, I was convinced that I was about to die. And while (spoiler alert), I did not do it, my severe health anxiety and my ability to always assume that the worst has persisted. But the increase in monitoring the health of intelligent devices and new ways of which AI tries to give meaning to the data of our body led me to make an important decision. For my own peace of mind, AI must remain far from my personal health. After Samsung’s unloaded event, I am more convinced than ever. I will explain.

Around 2016, I had serious migraines that persisted for a few weeks. My anxiety increased sharply during this period due to the concern of the participants, and when I finally called the UK NHS assistance line and explained my various symptoms, they told me that I had to go to the nearest hospital and be seen within 2 hours. “Walk there with someone”, I remember it distinctly that he was telling me, “it will be faster than getting an ambulance for you.”

This call confirmed my worst fears – this death was imminent.

It turned out that my fears of early disappearance were not founded. The cause was actually a severe muscular pressure to have hung several heavy cameras around my neck for a whole day while photographing a friend’s marriage. But the telephone assistance agent simply worked on the limited data that I had provided, and as a result, they – probably – had adopted a “better than more sorry” approach and urged me to consult immediate medical care, just in case I was really at risk.

I spent most of my adult life struggling with health anxiety, and episodes like this taught me a lot about my ability to jump to the worst conclusions, although there is no real proof to support them. A ringtone in my ears? Must be a brain tumor. A pinch in my stomach? Well, it is better to put my things in order.

I have learned to live with that over the years, and even if I still have my ups and downs, I know better what triggers things for me. For part, I learned Never For Google my symptoms. Because regardless of my symptom, cancer was always One of the possibilities that a research would vomit. Medical sites – including the own NHS website – have not provided any comfort and have generally only led to breaking panic attacks.

Unfortunately, I found that I had a similar answer with many health monitoring tools. I liked my Apple Watch at the start, and its ability to read my heart rate during training sessions was useful. Then I discovered that I checked it more and more often throughout the day. Then, doubt slipped: “Why is my heart rate raised when I’m just sitting? Is it normal? I’m going to try again in 5 minutes.” When, inevitably, it was no different (or it was worse), panic would naturally follow.

Whether it is monitoring of the heart rate, blood oxygen levels or even sleep scores, I would obsess how a “normal” range should be and each time my data fell outside this beach, I immediately suppose that it meant that I was about to hide right and then. The more these devices provided data, the more things I felt that I had to worry about. I learned to keep my concerns remotely and I continued to use smart watches, without being a lot of problems for my mental health (I must actively use heart -related functions like ECG), but health tools based on AI make me.

During his unpacled January speech, Samsung explained how his new Galaxy AI – and Gemini AI tools of Google – will help us supposedly in our daily life. Samsung Health algorithms will follow your heart rate because it fluctuates throughout the day, informing you of changes. It will provide personalized information from your diet and exercise to help cardiovascular health and you can even ask questions of the AI ​​agent linked to your health.

For many, it may seem a great holistic vision of your health, but not for me. For me, it looks like more data collected and the wavy in front of me, forcing me to recognize it and create an endless obsession, concern and, inevitably, panic loop. But these are the IA questions that are the biggest red flag for me. AI tools by their nature must make “best guess” answers generally based on information available online. Placing a question in AI is really just a quick way to perform a Google search, and as I found, Googling Health Queries does not end well for me.

Like the NHS telephone operator who made me panic inadvertently about death, an AI health assistant will be able to provide answers according to the limited information he has on me. Asking a question about my heart health could evoke a variety of information, as is the search for a health website explains why I have a headache. But a bit like how a headache can Technically, being a symptom of cancer, it is also much more likely to be a muscle pinch. Or I didn’t drink enough water. Or I need to divert my screen a bit. Or I shouldn’t have been standing before 2 am to play the Yakuza: infinite wealth. Or a hundred other reasons, which are all much more likely than the one I have already decided is certainly the culprit.

But will an AI give me the context I need so as not to worry and obsess myself? Or will it just provide me all Potentials as a way to try to give a complete understanding, but rather to nourish this “and if”? And, like the way in which Google’s IA previews told people to eat glue on pizza, a IA health tool will simply browse the internet and provide me with a response, with inaccurate inferences that could tip my anxiety on the complete territory of the panic attack?

Or perhaps, a bit like the nice doctor of the hospital that day who smiled gently to the sobbing man seated in front who had already written a farewell note to his family on his phone in the waiting room, an AI tool could be able to see this data and simply say: “You are well, Andy, stop worrying and go to sleep.”

Maybe it will be the case. Perhaps health monitoring tools and IA ideas will be able to give me a dose of logic and reassurance essential to counter my anxiety, rather than being the cause. But until then, it is not a risk that I am ready to take.