Many experts have emphasised that chatbots are not sufficiently mature to be able to technically diagnose patient conditions or replace the judgements of health professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has significantly increased the utilisation of health-oriented chatbots, for instance, as a conversational interface to answer questions, recommend care options, check symptoms and complete tasks such as booking appointments. In this paper, we take a proactive approach and consider how the emergence of task-oriented chatbots as partially automated consulting systems can influence clinical practices and expert–client relationships. We suggest the need for new approaches in professional ethics as the large-scale deployment of artificial intelligence may revolutionise professional decision-making and client–expert interaction in healthcare organisations. We argue that the implementation of chatbots amplifies the project of rationality and automation in clinical practice and alters traditional decision-making practices based on epistemic probability and prudence. This article contributes to the discussion on the ethical challenges posed by chatbots from the perspective of healthcare professional ethics.

许多专家强调，聊天机器人还不够成熟，无法从技术上诊断患者病情或取代卫生专业人员的判断。然而，COVID-19 大流行显着增加了以健康为导向的聊天机器人的使用，例如，作为对话界面来回答问题、推荐护理选项、检查症状和完成预约等任务。在本文中，我们采取了积极主动的方法，并考虑了面向任务的聊天机器人作为部分自动化咨询系统的出现如何影响临床实践和专家-客户关系。我们建议需要在职业道德方面采取新的方法，因为人工智能的大规模部署可能会彻底改变医疗机构中的专业决策和客户-专家互动。我们认为聊天机器人的实施扩大了临床实践中的理性和自动化项目，并改变了基于认知概率和审慎的传统决策实践。本文有助于从医疗保健职业道德的角度讨论聊天机器人带来的道德挑战。