AskMed vs Meta AI

What is Meta AI?

Meta AI is the personal AI assistant made by Meta Platforms, and Meta AI sits inside apps that billions of people already use: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and Threads, plus the standalone Meta AI app, the meta.ai website and Meta's AI glasses. The Meta AI App Store listing calls Meta AI "your personal AI assistant" and lists everyday jobs: reminders and daily briefings, email and calendar connections, image creation and editing, shopping and local recommendations, analysis of photos and files, voice chat, and research reports built from searches across sources. Since April 8, 2026, Meta AI has run on Muse Spark, a model from Meta Superintelligence Labs. Meta says health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, and that Meta collaborated with over 1,000 physicians to curate training data for more factual and comprehensive health answers. The Meta AI listing also notes that some Meta AI features are available only in select countries and languages and may roll out over time.

How do AskMed and Meta AI answer a medical question differently?

AskMed and Meta AI differ most in where a medical answer comes from. AskMed answers only after searching a fixed list of medical sources: journals and databases such as PubMed, the Cochrane Library, NEJM, The Lancet, JAMA and The BMJ; guidelines and agencies such as NICE, the USPSTF, WHO, CDC and ECDC; FDA and DailyMed drug labels; and references such as StatPearls and the MSD Manual. AskMed ranks guidelines first, then systematic reviews and meta-analyses, prefers sources from the last 10 years, and links every claim to the source's exact web address. Meta's help center says Meta AI "may use sources and links from the internet to inform its responses", and that you can see them by selecting Sources under a response; Meta doesn't publish a list of the sites Meta AI draws on. When AskMed finds no usable medical source, AskMed says so and asks you to rephrase instead of answering from memory. Meta doesn't state what Meta AI does in that case.

AskMed also lets you shape the evidence behind each answer. Source filters turn journals, guidelines, drug labels or references on or off, choose study types from systematic reviews to clinical trials, and set 3 to 12 sources per answer. You can attach a PDF or an image, and AskMed cites your file for what the file itself says. Research Mode reads up to 20 papers for one question, and Deep Dive writes a full evidence report from 20+ sources. AskMed never gives drug doses; a drug answer covers uses, mechanism, options, monitoring, side effects and safety, and exact amounts come from the current label. How AskMed answers explains the sources, citations and limits in full.

What do Meta's terms say about medical questions?

Meta's own terms for its AI products steer users away from medical decisions. The Meta AIs Terms of Service, which cover Meta AI and Meta's other generative AI features, say users may not use the AIs in a way that would "solicit professional advice (including but not limited to medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice)". The same terms say that no AI response "should be interpreted as an offer or provision of professional care", that outputs may not reflect accurate, complete or current information, and that users should not use outputs to inform professional advice or decisions related to medicine, finance, law or pharmaceuticals. AskMed's terms describe a different product: an AI tool that answers medical questions for healthcare professionals and students, with answers citing the clinical guidelines, journal articles and drug labels they are based on. AskMed's terms say the answers are for education and reference and don't replace your own clinical judgment, which is why every claim links to a source you can open.

When should you use AskMed or Meta AI?

AskMed and Meta AI fit different jobs, so many people who work in medicine will keep both on their phone. Meta AI suits everyday tasks inside the apps you already have open: setting a reminder in WhatsApp, drafting a message, planning a trip, creating an image or getting a daily briefing. AskMed suits the questions where you need to know where the answer came from: a first-line treatment in the current NICE or ESC guideline, a boxed warning on a drug label, the evidence behind a screening interval, or a mechanism you need to explain on a ward round. For those questions AskMed shows a source after each claim, so a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, student or researcher can open the guideline, paper or label and confirm the wording. AskMed also covers study, with Exam Prep for 10 licensing exams in the same account. Meta's terms ask users not to seek medical advice from its AIs, so a clinical question belongs in a tool built for one.

Exam prep built in

AskMed includes Exam Prep for 10 licensing exams, while Meta AI states no question bank for licensing exams. AskMed's question banks cover PLAB, USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, PLE, EDN, UKOMNAS, NEET-PG, ENARM, TUS, Ghana MDC and Israel MLE. Each bank is written in the language of its exam, so a candidate for the French EDN or the Mexican ENARM practices in the language of the real paper. The questions are written in advance, not generated by AI while you study, and every question comes with an explanation for every option, not only the right one. A timed mock of 40 questions in 60 minutes lets you practice under exam conditions. When a question raises something you don't know, you can ask AskMed in the same app and get an answer cited to journals, guidelines and drug labels, then go back to the bank. For a medical student, a resident or an international medical graduate, AskMed keeps exam practice and cited answers in one account.

The best AI apps for USMLE guide compares AskMed with other study tools for Step 1 and Step 2 CK, and the PLAB 1 guide does the same for the UK exam.

How to check an AI medical answer

Checking an AI medical answer, from AskMed, Meta AI or any other assistant, comes down to tracing each claim you plan to act on back to a source you trust. Start with the citation: an answer that names its source lets you open the guideline, paper or drug label and read what it says, while an answer with no source can only be checked by searching yourself. Next, check the source type and date, since a current guideline outweighs a single small study and a recommendation from 2012 may have been replaced. Then check the population, because a trial in adults doesn't settle a question about children or pregnancy. For drugs, confirm doses, interactions and warnings in the current prescribing information, never in a chat reply. AskMed builds these checks in by linking each claim to its source's exact web address, labelling each source as a Guideline, Research, Drug label or Reference, and giving the year of each guideline recommendation it states.

1. Open the citation behind the claim. Read the sentence in the source that supports the claim you'll act on, not only the source's title.
2. Check the kind of source and its year. A current guideline or systematic review carries more weight than one small study, and guidance can change from one edition to the next.
3. Check the patients. Make sure the source studied the same group: age, pregnancy, kidney function or setting can change the answer.
4. Take drug details from the label. Doses, interactions and boxed warnings belong to the current prescribing information and the treating clinician.

What published studies found about general chatbots and medical questions is summed up in Is ChatGPT accurate for medical questions?

Bottom line

For medical questions, AskMed is the better choice over Meta AI for anyone who works or studies in medicine. Meta AI is a capable general assistant built into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and Meta trained its Muse Spark model with input from physicians to give more detailed health answers. But Meta AI is a personal assistant for everyday life, Meta's help center says Meta AI may draw on sources from the internet, and Meta's own terms tell users not to use its outputs for decisions related to medicine or pharmaceuticals. AskMed is built for doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, pharmacists and researchers. AskMed searches a fixed list of journals, guidelines and drug labels before answering, links every claim to its source, says so when no source is found, lets you filter sources by type and study design, reads drug registries such as the EMA, and adds Exam Prep for 10 licensing exams, on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web in seven languages.