HHS Bets on AI to Hypothesize Vaccine Risks, Prompting Safety and Agenda Debate

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is developing a generative AI tool to scan VAERS data and generate hypotheses about potential vaccine injuries; the tool has not yet been deployed and has been in development since 2023. Critics worry it could be used by Health Secretary RFK Jr. to advance an anti-vaccine agenda. VAERS is a voluntary, unverified database managed by the CDC and FDA, intended to generate hypotheses rather than prove causality, and experts caution that large language models can hallucinate, underscoring the need for careful human review and corroboration with other data sources, especially given staffing constraints at the CDC.)