AI, Ethics and Client Data: What Health Practitioners Get Wrong

Most practitioners now use AI somewhere in their practice, but few have stopped to ask where their clients' data goes, who is training on it, or what their software subscriptions are funding. In this HPI team episode, Dr Cliff Harvey, Luke Gabites and Choong Kwan talk honestly about the ethics of the tech we buy, how they each use AI with clients, and the mistakes they see colleagues making. In this episode we cover Why the rise of AI pushed tech ethics onto practitioners' radar "We are the product": what free tools really cost Where client data actually goes in apps, AI tools and cloud workspaces De-identification and other practical privacy safeguards for AI use How Cliff uses AI for differential assessment and peer review, without handing over his clinical reasoning Hallucinated studies, people-pleasing answers and built-in bias How HPI audited its suppliers and moved to a more ethical tech stack (and saved money doing it) Progress over perfection: building your own ethos for business decisions Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:22 How AI put tech ethics on the radar 03:15 "We are the product": free tools and advertising 05:19 Client data in a world of vibe-coded apps 08:37 Privacy law, de-identification and where your data lives 11:43 Jurisdiction, subpoenas and European alternatives 13:45 HPI's procurement policy and why it started 16:06 Practitioners using free AI tools 17:59 AI as an extension of your brain 19:33 Data breaches and simple de-identification habits 23:00 AI makes good practitioners better and bad practitioners worse 28:06 If you build AI to replace you, it can 28:59 Hallucinations: invented studies and bad instructions 31:26 AI wants to please you: why you still need to study 33:41 How LLMs actually work, and their biases 36:28 Training data, IP and copyright 37:15 HPI's supplier audit and new tech stack 41:58 Progress over perfection 43:46 Finding your ethos and your big why 45:54 The Practitioner's Roadmap About the hosts Dr Cliff Harvey is a clinical nutritionist, researcher and founder of the Holistic Performance Institute: https://www.holisticperformance.institute/ Luke Gabites is a Registered Clinical Nutritionist and Sports Nutritionist at Planted Nutrition in Auckland. Choong Kwan is a Registered Clinical Nutritionist, sports nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach based in Auckland. He helps time-poor parents and high performers build strong, healthy bodies without letting training and nutrition take over their lives. Find him at https://www.iamchoong.com/ Links mentioned in this episode NZ Privacy Commissioner guidance on AI: https://www.privacy.org.nz/resources-and-learning/a-z-topics/ai/ OpenAI data controls (turning off model training): https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7730893-data-controls-faq ManageMyHealth breach inquiry (1News): https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/05/27/managemyhealth-warned-before-massive-data-breach-inquiry/ HPI Vision for Equity (ethics and diversity policy): <a href="https://www.holisticperformance.institute/pages/ethics-and-diversity" re

AI, Ethics and Client Data: What Health Practitioners Get Wrong | HPI Team