No AI Can Learn the Art of Medicine

A 49-year-old female notices new-onset vaginal bleeding over the past several days. She becomes concerned and seeks advice from her long-time family physician. When she calls, she is surprised to hear responses from an artificial intelligence (AI) platform. The longtime secretary, who knew her well and would quickly arrange appointments or connect her with the doctor, has been replaced by this expensive new AI-based system. The call begins with an extensive library of prompts. When she presses 0 to speak with a human, she is told the next available appointment is in nine weeks. She hangs up and redials to discuss her problem with a pleasant computer voice, which almost sounds like a real person and asks her to describe her problem—eventually responding with a long-winded response with possible explanations for her bleeding. It then utilizes a proprietary algorithm to make recommendations which include lifestyle changes and watchful waiting, with instructions to dial back if the problem persists. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Eventually, she loses patience and decides to visit the office in person. After briefly seeing her in the office, her doctor is concerned and orders a CT scan with the smart scheduler that uses a complex triage algorithm to schedule her imaging in 1-2 days. She then receives the results of the CT scan in an email and again goes through the scheduler system to book her surgery, which is again triaged based on perceived medical urge...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized freelance Source Type: news