Artificial intelligence (AI) has arrived and will permeate every aspect of our society. It will touch all of us in our work, in the arts, in entertainment, in our government, and in our culture. As with all technology, it will deliver us both blessings and curses. We have been sharply warned of its potential destructive capability even by advocates of this technology. Will governments, industry, and the public agree on proper guardrails and restraint or will the tiger simply be let out of the cage? I worry that the strategy will be Ready! Fire! Aim! , instead of adopting thoughtful and prudent measures to keep us safe. Indeed, I’ve offered some sober thoughts on this issue to my readers in a prior post . My medical journals are now riddled with studies on various medical uses of AI portending an unimaginable future in the medical profession. A few paragraphs further down in this post, I will ask my readers a philosophical question regarding AI and I invite a dialogue. Until
There’s an adage known to every medical student, intern, resident, and practicing physician. When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don't expect to see a zebra. This quote has been paraphrased into several iterations, but the quote is credited to Dr. Thomas Woodward in 1940. Dr. Woodward, a wise medical professor and Nobel Prize nominee, offered his advice to medical interns. The aphorism has timeless value. The point is for physicians to exhaust common explanations when confronting medical clues before broadening the exercise to contemplate rare potential diagnoses. It is more likely that hoofbeats are made by a common horse than a more exotic hoofed beast. Get it? Let me offer a brilliant quote. Common things occur commonly. If a patient sees his physician to evaluate a fever, it’s unlikely that the doctor will entertain malaria as a diagnostic consideration, even though fever is a hallmark of malaria. Seasoned clinicians will widen their diagnostic view when