"Frozen blueberries cure diabetes."
A warning has been raised that YouTube videos featuring a doctor in a white coat sharing health tips may in fact be fake information generated by artificial intelligence. Four out of every 10 popular videos on senior health were produced with AI, and a large number were found to pose as medical experts without being actual doctors.
Videos Falsely Presented as Doctors Abound
According to data submitted by the Korea Health Promotion Institute to Rep. Park Yong-gap of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, 42 of the 100 most-viewed YouTube videos on senior health posted in April were created using generative AI. The lawmaker released the data on the 20th.
Of those 42 AI-generated videos, 24 impersonated doctors or other medical professionals. By contrast, only six videos, or 6% of the total, featured genuine experts.
The fake videos were produced to win trust by displaying specialist titles and white coats. Some used the names of nonexistent specialists as channel names, while others were staged to suggest the presenter had treated patients at a hospital.
The content itself was also problematic. Claims lacking medical grounds or exaggerating treatment effects were confirmed, including "warm water works better than stomach medicine" and "frozen blueberries cure diabetes."
Some videos carried no disclosure that they had been made with AI. The institute found that AI-generated videos were seven times more likely to contain false information than videos featuring real experts.
Nearly Half of People in Their 60s Seek Health Information
As such videos spread, the risk of harm is growing among older adults who actively search for health information.
According to a survey on health information awareness by the Korea Health Promotion Institute, 45.4% of people in their 60s search for health-related information at least once a week.
Internet portals were the most common channel for encountering health information at 49.7%, followed by YouTube at 14.4%.
The number of older adults consuming video content is also rising. According to Statistics Korea's 2025 Statistics on the Elderly, 97.2% of older adults spent their leisure time watching broadcasts or videos. Time spent using information and communications technology devices came to one hour and 39 minutes a day, up one hour and five minutes from five years earlier.
The problem is that the faces and voices of AI-created fake doctors can appear indistinguishable from those of real experts. There are concerns that some older adults, who find it difficult to judge the authenticity of digital information, may believe incorrect treatments and miss the right time to seek proper medical care.
Google Shuts 10 Channels
The oversight system for screening out false health information also revealed gaps.
The Korea Health Promotion Institute can recommend voluntary corrections to producers or platforms over information harmful to health, but it has never actually requested that a video be deleted. After Park raised the issue, Google Korea began reviewing the videos in question.
According to Park's office, Google Korea reviewed 100 videos across 51 channels, shutting down 10 channels that violated its operating guidelines and removing 31 videos. It added labels to 13 videos that had carried no AI disclosure and suspended monetization for 10 videos across five channels.
YouTube has also tightened monetization limits since July on low-quality videos mass-produced with AI and on sensationalist content. Content in which AI avatars modeled on real people give advice in the medical, financial and legal fields was also included among the restrictions.
These measures, however, mainly take the form of limiting advertising revenue, prompting arguments that continuous oversight is needed to stop the circulation of false health information itself.
"As more older people get health information through platforms such as YouTube, there is a risk they will worsen their conditions through incorrect information," Park said. "We need to form a consultative body involving public institutions, platforms and medical experts to conduct regular inspections and actively block harmful videos."