1. The short version
Use Bari to understand general concepts, explore BariNation resources, and prepare questions for your care team. Do not use Bari for diagnosis, treatment decisions, medication instructions, or emergencies.
AI can sound confident and still be wrong. Verify important information with a qualified professional and use the source links provided with responses.
2. Where we use AI
BariNation currently uses generative AI in Bari, the website companion. Bari receives the question you type and limited public context from the page you are viewing, then generates a plain-language response. The system runs through Amazon Bedrock and Bedrock AgentCore using a model selected and configured by BariNation.
We may use ordinary automated rules before the AI model to provide urgent-safety language or approved BariNation information. We do not represent AI-generated responses as human-authored or as medical care.
3. Intended purpose
Bari is designed to:
- explain general, evidence-aligned concepts about obesity, metabolic and bariatric surgery, anti-obesity medications, long-term follow-up, and stigma-free care;
- summarize public BariNation resources and help users find relevant pages;
- help users prepare general questions for licensed care professionals; and
- explain BariNation’s mission, community, resources, and ways to participate.
4. What Bari is not for
Do not rely on Bari to:
- diagnose a condition, interpret personal test results, or assess whether symptoms are serious;
- recommend a treatment for you, prescribe or change medication, provide dosing, or determine eligibility;
- replace a clinician, registered dietitian, mental-health professional, pharmacist, emergency service, or crisis counselor;
- make decisions about access to care, insurance, employment, benefits, donations, membership, or other rights or opportunities; or
- provide legal, tax, or financial advice.
Bari does not independently browse the web, access medical records, contact clinicians, schedule care, or take action outside the chat.
5. Emergencies and crisis support
Bari may recognize certain urgent words and display a safety message, but it cannot reliably detect or respond to every emergency. Do not wait for a chat response.
If you may be experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number. In the United States or Canada, call or text 988 for suicide or mental-health crisis support. If you are elsewhere, contact your local emergency or crisis service.
6. Privacy and data use
Do not enter names, dates of birth, addresses, contact details, medical record or insurance numbers, full medication lists, or another person’s private information. A health question may itself be sensitive even without your name.
Chat text and limited session context are sent to Amazon Web Services to generate a response. Persistent AI memory is disabled, and BariNation does not intentionally use chat content to train AI models or for targeted advertising. Amazon states that Amazon Bedrock does not use customer inputs and outputs to train its models by default. See our Privacy and Consumer Health Data Policy for categories, recipients, retention, and your rights.
7. Safeguards and oversight
Our safeguards include:
- system instructions limiting Bari to general education and BariNation information;
- clear interface notices that the tool is AI and not medical advice;
- limits on message length, conversation duration, output length, tool access, and request rates;
- special responses for certain emergency and self-harm language;
- relevant BariNation source links where available;
- technical logging focused on usage, cost, performance, and errors rather than question text; and
- the ability to disable the feature while investigating a safety, privacy, or quality issue.
These measures reduce risk but do not eliminate errors. We periodically review the system’s instructions, test cases, and operational signals and may update the model or controls.
8. Our AI principles
People first
AI should support human understanding and agency, not replace professional judgment or meaningful human connection.
Science over stigma
We instruct Bari to use person-first, respectful language and to treat obesity as a complex chronic disease rather than a moral failing.
Honesty about limits
We identify Bari as AI, describe its intended use, and do not promise perfect accuracy or imply clinical authority.
Data restraint
We aim to collect the minimum information needed to provide the requested response, avoid persistent AI memory, and do not sell chat health data.
Safety and accountability
BariNation remains responsible for choosing, configuring, and monitoring the AI feature. A user can report a concerning response to a human at the contact address below.
9. Your responsibilities
Use Bari only for lawful, personal purposes. Do not submit private information about another person, attempt to override safety controls, use responses to harm or mislead someone, or present a response as professional medical advice. If you quote or share a response, clearly identify it as AI-generated and preserve its limitations and context.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our AI systems, safeguards, or legal obligations change. We will post the revised version and update the date above. Material changes to health-data practices will be handled as described in our Privacy and Consumer Health Data Policy.
11. Questions or concerns
Report an inaccurate, unsafe, biased, or privacy-sensitive response to hello@barination.org with the subject “Bari AI Feedback.” Please do not include unnecessary health or identifying information.