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Artificial Intelligence to Replace Physicians: Are We There Yet?
(Thursday, April 4, 2024) The last year and half have been fueled by the hype about the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms in replacing work done traditionally by humans, driven primarily by generative large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. One area of lively debate is the ability of ChatGPT in analyzing health information to generate therapeutic decisions currently made by human physicians. A research study published this week in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) shows the promise and limitations of ChatGPT in doing just that. The study involved presenting clinical data regarding 20 cases to physicians at 2 medical centers asking them to describe the medical problem and their diagnosis with reasoning. The same information was, in parallel, presented to ChatGPT-4 for similarly describing the problem and diagnosis with reasoning. The resulting medical opinions were scored in both cases. The chatbot performed similarly to the physicians in diagnostic accuracy and correct clinical reasoning. There were some differences between the reasoning made by the physicians based on their training; the chatbot agreed more with residents (less experience) compared to with attending physicians (more experience). The study concluded that ChatGPT-4 will “likely augment, not replace, the human reasoning process”. The study was a small proof-of-concept study and like most studies with such a small sample size, provided high-level trends. It would not be hard to imagine well-trained LLMs providing significant support to physicians over time in performing these tasks. The biggest risk is perhaps the complacency it may promote among physician users over time as they rely more on and increasingly trust their “AI-associates”, so much so that they don’t do an independent review of the information letting AI run the show, so to speak. It seems like science fiction that is ready to come into real life. 
AUTHOR
Dr. Mukesh Kumar Founder & CEO, FDAMap Email: [email protected] Linkedin: Mukesh Kumar, PhD, RAC Instagram: mukeshkumarrac Twitter: @FDA_MAP Youtube: MukeshKumarFDAMap |
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