Opinion | When AI and doctors make the diagnosis

To the editor:

Re: “AI chatbots beat doctors to diagnose diseases” (Science Times, November 19):

As a physician and medical educator, I felt the provocative title of this article was a missed opportunity to highlight the true story of this research.

The study does not prove the superiority of AI over doctors; Rather, it exposes flaws in our outdated educational methods. The continued use of closed-book testing inadvertently leads doctors to overvalue stored information, an approach that no longer makes as much sense in a world where medical knowledge is estimated to double every 73 days. If anything, AI-naïve doctors’ skepticism of GPT diagnoses reflects appropriate professional judgment; We are taught to demand validated evidence before changing our minds.

Additionally, research shows how our cognitive processes both help and hinder us; The same pattern recognition that helps doctors easily diagnose common diseases can lead to unconscious bias or diagnostic errors when it comes to rare diseases like those in the study.

Most concerning is how this article could lead patients to use untested commercial chatbots for self-diagnosis. The solution is not to replace doctors with chatbots, but rather to redefine what skills 21st century doctors need to be successful.

In addition to compassion and competence, medical schools should also emphasize curiosity and intellectual flexibility and teach the skillful use of AI and the recognition and destruction of prejudices. In this way, we can use AI to benefit patients and physicians while preserving the irreplaceable human elements of healthcare.

Rachel SC Friedman
Santa Rosa, California.

To the editor:

It doesn’t surprise me that a chatbot is superior to doctors in diagnosing diseases. Now don’t get me wrong: I am trained as a doctor and doctors have my utmost respect. But doctors sift through mountains of data, often in a limited time frame, relying on intuition and human expertise. This is probably another reason why they are not always willing to receive an answer other than a chatbot.