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The American Medical Association and five other physician groups criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he said doctors should check AI before diagnosing or prescribing and suggested AI could help Americans assess medical advice. The groups say AI can support clinical work but should not be portrayed as inherently more reliable than physicians or as a replacement for their judgment.
The American Medical Association and five other physician groups have criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments about artificial intelligence, saying claims that AI may be better informed than doctors risk undermining physician expertise and patient trust. Kennedy made the remarks at a Washington summit, where he said doctors should check AI before making diagnoses or prescriptions and promoted wider public access to AI medical advice.
In their joint statement, the groups said, “Statements suggesting AI is inherently better informed than physicians, or that physicians cannot be trusted to make clinical decisions without first consulting this technology, diminish physician expertise and risk undermining patients’ trust.” They said doctors assess patients in context, using training and experience to understand individual needs, exercise judgment and take responsibility for care.
Kennedy described a conversation with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman at the Make America Healthy Again summit. Kennedy said Altman had told him that while he would not have advised people to rely on AI alone for medical advice two years earlier, “today it would be malpractice for a doctor to make a diagnosis or to make a prescription without at least checking AI.” That was Kennedy’s account of Altman’s statement; the source report does not include a direct comment from Altman.
Kennedy also said his agency was working to make it easier for Americans to use AI to check medical advice and statements from public officials. He cited masks and vaccines as examples and said the technology could help free people from what he called “medical tyranny.” The physician groups’ statement did not endorse or validate those examples. The source report provides no evidence that AI systems reliably resolve such questions or that doctors are legally required to consult AI.
AI’s Role in Clinical Decisions
The disagreement concerns how patients may understand AI’s place in medical care. If public officials describe AI as a necessary check on doctors, patients could interpret that as a claim that physicians’ judgments are inherently less trustworthy. The groups argue that this framing risks damaging confidence in the clinician-patient relationship.
It also raises a practical distinction: AI can be used as a tool, but that is not the same as establishing it as a required second opinion or a substitute for professional responsibility. Jason Goldman, MD, the American College of Physicians’ immediate past president, said AI depends on the information supplied to it and can produce errors. The source material does not provide performance data or legal guidance establishing when clinicians should use AI.
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How Kennedy Framed Public Medical Advice
Kennedy spoke at the MAHA summit in Washington on Tuesday, according to the report published October 1, 2026. His remarks linked broader access to AI with the public’s ability to scrutinize medical guidance from officials, including advice on masks and vaccines. He described this as a way to challenge what he called reliance on experts.
The report places the dispute amid earlier Trump administration statements questioning medical expertise. It says President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August that reduced the number of universally recommended childhood vaccines and called for splitting the MMR vaccine. Trump also suggested vaccine number or timing could be related to rising autism rates. The report notes that scientific consensus and decades of studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, and that the CDC changed website language about the issue last year under Kennedy’s direction. These are background developments; the current dispute is specifically about Kennedy’s claims concerning AI and medical decisions.
““Pitting physicians against technology or suggesting AI should replace physician expertise does not advance this important work.””
— American Medical Association and five other physician groups
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AI Standards and Legal Duties
The report does not establish whether AI consultation is a legal or professional requirement for doctors, or whether any regulator has set such a rule. Kennedy’s account of Altman’s remarks is not independently confirmed in the source material, and the report does not include a response from Altman or OpenAI.
It is also unclear what AI products Kennedy’s agency plans to make more accessible, how they would be evaluated, or what safeguards would apply to advice given directly to the public. The physician groups’ statement warns about trust and professional judgment but does not set out a detailed policy for appropriate clinical use of AI.
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Policy Details Still Awaited
The next development to watch is whether HHS provides details about its stated effort to make AI easier for Americans to use for medical advice. The source report does not give a timeline, identify a specific tool or describe plans for testing, oversight or patient protections.
Further comment from Kennedy, HHS, OpenAI or the other physician organizations could clarify whether the dispute leads to any formal guidance. Until then, the confirmed development is the groups’ public objection to Kennedy’s framing—not a new rule requiring doctors to use AI or an announced federal AI program with defined terms.
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Key Questions
What did RFK Jr. say about doctors and AI?
Kennedy said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had told him that doctors should check AI before diagnosing or prescribing, describing failure to do so as “malpractice.” The report does not include a direct statement from Altman or establish that this is a legal requirement.
Which groups objected to Kennedy’s comments?
The American Medical Association and five other physician groups issued a joint statement. The source report identifies the American College of Physicians as one of the groups.
What is the doctors’ main concern?
The groups said portraying AI as inherently better informed than physicians, or implying doctors cannot make decisions without it, could diminish physician expertise and weaken patient trust. They said physicians assess individual circumstances and take responsibility for care.
Did the report establish that doctors must consult AI?
No. It reports Kennedy’s account of Altman’s view and the groups’ response, but does not cite a law, regulator or professional rule requiring clinicians to check AI before making diagnoses or prescriptions.
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