UK women's cancer charity launches AI chatbot to triage symptoms

The Eve Appeal, the UK’s leading women’s cancer charity, unveiled a new AI chatbot called Ask Eve Assist to help women identify warning signs of womb, ovarian, cervical, vulval or vaginal cancers. The tool was created after the charity’s investigations revealed that popular AI platforms such as Google’s Overview and ChatGPT provided inaccurate or incomplete information on cancer symptoms and screening. Powered by expert-validated data from the charity’s website, the chatbot operates around the clock, offering initial symptom checks and referring users to the charity’s specialist nurses for complex cases.

In trials involving 359 people, roughly 5% required additional nurse assistance. The service responds to a surge in demand for the charity’s Ask Eve advice line following the 2024 shutdown of Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust and aims to reduce the risk of delayed diagnoses, which currently claim around 21 lives daily in the UK.