UK physician and YouTuber Dr. Ed Hope says Google’s AI wrongly asserted that he had been suspended by the General Medical Council earlier this year for selling sick notes. Hope described the claim as entirely fabricated and warned it could have serious consequences for his professional reputation.
According to a new video he posted, Google’s AI produced an elaborate story accusing him of professional misconduct, even though he says he has never faced any investigations, complaints, or sanctions in his decade-long medical career.
Why it matters. Google’s AI-generated responses are now, in at least this case, presenting false and potentially career-ending allegations about real individuals as if they were true. That raises major concerns about defamation, responsibility, and whether AI-created statements fall outside Section 230 protections.
What Google’s AI claimed: Hope shared screenshots showing Google’s AI alleging that he:
- Was suspended by the medical council in mid-2025.
- Made money by selling sick notes.
- Took advantage of patients for personal profit.
- Was disciplined professionally after becoming popular online.
‘None of this is true.’ Hope, who has close to 500,000 followers, said he doesn’t know how long the answer was visible or how many people might have read and believed it, noting that the reputational harm may already have occurred. After first seeing the AI Overview, he was able to trigger the same hallucination again and uncovered additional false statements, including claims that he deceived insurers and plagiarized content.
- “This is just about the most serious allegation you can get as a doctor. You basically aren’t fit to practice medicine,” he said.
How did this happen? Hope suspects Google’s AI combined unrelated pieces of information into a fabricated narrative. He believes the system mixed up people and events, then presented the resulting fiction as established fact:
- He hadn’t uploaded to YouTube for several months.
- His channel is named “Sick Notes.”
- Another doctor, Dr. Asif Munaf, was actually involved in a real sick-note scandal.
Why this goes beyond “just a mistake.” Hope said the AI did not signal uncertainty, ask for clarification, or present the information as speculative. Instead, it stated the falsehoods as definitive truth. He argues this is critical because:
- AI responses are presented as authoritative and trustworthy.
- Users can’t easily see underlying sources, biases, or intent.
- There is no obvious, transparent process for correction or redress.
- The statements targeted a private individual, not a widely debated public issue.
The major legal issue. Is Google’s AI engaging in defamation? Or does Google remain protected under Section 230, which generally shields platforms from liability for content created by others? Courts may ultimately have to decide. For now, some legal scholars have suggested that:
- AI-generated content is not simply third-party speech.
- The model is actively creating and publishing new assertions.
- False statements presented as factual could meet the definition of defamation.
Resolved? A search for [what happened to dr. ed hope sick notes] previously surfaced this Google AI Overview:
Dr. Ed Hope (of the “Dr. Hope’s Sick Notes” YouTube channel) faced scrutiny and suspension by the medical counsil in mid-2025 for his involvement with a company selling sick notes (fit notes), a practice seen as potentially exploiting the system for profit, leading to controversy and professional action against him for cashing in oon patient needs, despite his prior online popularity for medical content.
What happened:
- Suspension: In June 2025, Dr. Ed Hope was suspended by the medical council (likely the GMC in the UK).
- Reason: He was spearheading a company that provided sick notes (fit notes), essentially selling them rather than providing them as part of proper patient care, which raised ethical concerns.
- Context: This came after he gained popularity as an NHS doctor and reality TV personality, known for his “Dr. Hope’s Sick Notes” channel where he’d break down medical scenes in media.
The Controversy:
- Criticals argued that he was profiting from people’s health issues by faciliting quick, potentially unwarranted, sick notes, undermining the healthcare system.
- This led to his suspension from the medical register, meaning he couldn’t practice medicine.
In essence, Dr. Ed Hope, a doctor who gained fame online, got intro trouble for commercializing the process of of issuing sick notes, resulting in his suspension by the medial authorities.
Running the same search for [what happened to dr. ed hope sick notes] now produces a different AI Overview (at least in my results):
“Dr. Ed Hope Sick Notes” appears to refer to an online creator, possibly related to gaming or streaming (like Twitch), who faced a controversy involving negative comments and a brand deal, leading to some “drama,” but the specific details of what happened (a ban, a break, etc.) aren’t fully clear from the search snippets, though a YouTube video suggests a reconciliation or a resolution after the “drama”. The name also sounds like it could relate to the medical soap opera Doctors, but that show was canceled in 2024, not by an “Ed Hope” character.
Here’s a breakdown of possibilities:
- Online Creator: A YouTube video titled “Making Up With Dr. Ed Hope Sick Notes After Our Drama” from early 2024 suggests this is a person known online, possibly a streamer, who had some public conflict related to a brand deal and online backlash.
- Fictional Character: While it sounds like a character name, the major medical drama Doctors ended, so it’s likely not a current, major plotline from that show, notes Deadline.
To find out exactly what happened, you might need to search for “Dr. Ed Hope Sick Notes drama” or look for their social media (Twitch, YouTube) to see recent posts.
The video. “SUSPENDED” as a DOCTOR – Thanks Google!