Dangers of Trusting AI-Generated Content in Sports Pharmacy
Cite this work: Anderson, A. Dangers of Trusting AI-Generated Content in Sports Pharmacy. Sports Pharmacy Blog. March 30, 2025. International Sports Pharmacists Network.
As pharmacists, we are held to the highest professional standards when it comes to advising athletes on medication use, anti-doping regulations, and performance-related health concerns. With the unprecedented speed in the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), many in healthcare are beginning to rely on AI-generated content for information and guidance in blog content or social media posts. Often assuming the content is accurately based in fact.
It's not. It pulls also from opinion and false statements in social media or popular websites with strong biases, and/ or uses Intellectual Property without correctly citing the source.
These issues become a liable to the healthcare professionals who post the content, according to Ashley Anderson RPh, IOC-Drugs in Sport. To write this blog, she consulted a Copyright Lawyer who specializes in generative AI content.
When it comes to sports pharmacy, trusting AI blindly will have serious consequences—not only for athletes but also for the reputation of pharmacists.
AI and Its Limitations in Sports Pharmacy
AI is a powerful tool for automation and generation of focused ideas, but it has significant shortcomings when applied to niche, high-stakes fields like sports pharmacy.
AI-generated content often:
1. Lacks Data Analysis Capabilities – AI is not "thinking" but is giving a superficial reply based on a superficial scrape of the internet or publicly accessible materials, not unbiased data.
2. Flawed in Up-to-Date Regulatory Knowledge – AI models are trained on past data and may not seek real-time updates on changes in anti-doping regulations from organizations like WADA or national governing bodies. Additionally, the weblink for 2024 will be a higher ranked result than the 2025 publication, and AI will pull what's popular instead of what's accurate. This can lead to misinformation that jeopardizes an athlete’s eligibility and career. Or may compromise the pharmacist license or reputation.
3. Lacks Contextual Understanding– AI struggles to grasp the nuanced application of medications in elite sports. A simple answer about a common drug may not account for its interactions with the sport, exercise physiology, metabolism under extreme conditions, or specific prohibitive lists in sports.
4. Accountability and Ethical Responsibility Non-existent – AI does not take responsibility for its advice. It can be easily manipulated! Pharmacists, on the other hand, are accountable for the guidance they provide, making it critical to verify sources and use expert judgment rather than AI-generated text.