By Priyanjana Pramanik, MSc. Reviewed by Susha Cheriyedath, M.Sc. Feb 10 2026 Despite near-perfect exam scores, large language models falter when real people rely on them for medical advice, exposing a critical gap between AI knowledge and safe patient decision-making. Study: Reliability of LLMs as medical assistants for the general public: a randomized preregistered study . Image Credit: Teacher Photo / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal  Nature Medicine , researchers