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In science news, some clever people are building machines to perform surgery driven by AI. The DaVinci surgical robots were originally built so that surgeons could perform surgery remotely. I thought that was a really cool idea--the doc would not have to scrub in, and could stay in his underwear with a game on TV in the background while doing surgery anywhere in the world using his home surgical module and a big screen.
But before that was even a thing, the march of technology had already brought AI into the mix to replace that doc who did not even get a chance to get used to the idea of working from home.
It would only take one robot to get really good at a procedure. That knowledge could be cloned into others, and experience would be instantly cumulative for all robot surgeons--no need for supplemental classes or lectures at conventions in Vegas or Miami. No need for patients to travel to some city where some surgical superstar has his base. Expertise would be universal.
No problem of drunk surgeons or the marginally competent. In theory, the same level of performance would be identical everywhere. The standard of care and the requisite procedures in the event of various contingencies would be built into the programming with constant review of case outcomes. If the surgical assistants are also robots, presumably that would further reduce the chance for a surgical suite Oops! moment.
Barring some conspicuous malfunction, med mal lawsuits would be tough to prosecute. You can't get a bot surgeon to testify against another as an expert witness. And will juries stay awake if lawsuits are just about allegations of coding errors? Clearly, these developers have not considered the potential long-term impact on the plaintiffs' bar. Technology is a bitch.
Discussion (39)
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I wager that the anesthesiologists will be the first to lose their jobs to "AI".
The anesthesiologist monitors the patient's vitals to adjust the quantity of drugs they get from moment to moment.
That seems like the O.R. job that could most easily be taught to an "AI".
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LLM / expert system doctors might be better than a bad human, but they are not going to be good at items outside of the context of their training data.
The key is to use the LLM as a tool for doctors, rather than a replacement. Start with paperwork reduction - doctors should be able to have LLM assistants to write medical records. Also, maybe a Second Opinion bot, built on less common diseases, to help doctors with diagnosis.
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You first.
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Who gets the blame if your self-driving car runs down a jaywalking pedestrian?
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We've already been through something very similar.
Wikipedia: Therac-25
The Therac-25 was involved in at least six accidents between 1985 and 1987, in which some patients were given massive overdoses of radiation. Because of concurrent programming errors (also known as race conditions), it sometimes gave its patients radiation doses that were hundreds of times greater than normal, resulting in death or serious injury. These accidents highlighted the dangers of software control of safety-critical systems.
The Therac-25 has become a standard case study in health informatics, software engineering, and computer ethics. It highlights the dangers of engineer overconfidence after the engineers dismissed user-end reports, leading to severe consequences.
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