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Artificial intelligence is the stuff science-fiction is built on. We’ve seen countless examples of it in the movies, from Star Wars to 2001. But as the field continues to advance in real life, science-fiction is fast becoming science-fact, and that means AI can have practical interactions in aspects of everyday human life, such as in medicine. Dr. Arthur Caplan is a professor of bioethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. Citing an NYU study comparing AI vs. human medical specialists, Dr. Caplan said AI produced more correct diagnoses, so he appeared on the WOR Morning Show to lay out some of the possible applications of AI in daily medical practices- at least, after the bugs are worked out.
“It’s coming,” Dr. Caplan told host Larry Mendte. “We’re going to see its use first to get access to people who live in rural areas or underserved areas… Now, that computer won’t be much good if you’re delivering a baby, but just for monitoring a pregnancy or making sure your tests are up to date and all that, I think that’s a place where you’d see it. Upstate New York, a lot of towns don’t have a doctor; tele-medicine driven by an AI doc- yeah, it’s on its way, but it has its issues.”
Dr. Caplan explained some of those issues, some of which could easily be addressed and others that may require more fine tuning. “A lot of people aren’t really sure how empathetic a robot’s gonna be, right. I mean, is it really going to listen and understand the nuances of human communication? Certainly, you’ve got issues about privacy, when you’re sending data out through AI, all kinds of third parties could hack it. It could leak, you know; we’ve got to toughen that up, I think, if we’re gonna turn more and more to AI. And then there’ s even an issue, weirdly, about malpractice. If you get misdiagnosed, if something is done wrong, who do you sue, the doctor who’s reading the AI result or the person who wrote the program for the AI?”
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