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Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Physicians and the Rest of Us?

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Editor’s Note: For 16 years, I've published weekly essays here on Blogspot, which will continue. I’ve now begun publishing my work on a new blogging platform, Substack, and I hope you’ll join me there. Please enter your email address at this link to receive my posts directly to your inbox.


I have written about labor unions on the blog from time to time.  I have lambasted the teachers unions, for example, for their self-serving positions during the Covid-19 pandemics.   On the other hand, I have supported hospital nurses organizing as the power imbalance between them and their employers has stifled needed reform.  And I have mused about employed physicians who are threatened with burnout and endless burdens seeking union protections.

Earlier on the day that I penned this post, I read of a labor agreement between a dockworkers union and its employer.  Fortunately, a strike was avoided.  The agreement has yet to be formally ratified.  One of the union's primary concerns was plans to introduce automation that would require fewer workers.  Management wants technology to increase productivity and efficiency.  While layoffs were not a stated goal, the union had understandable concerns that this could be an outcome.

Time for the medical profession to organize?

Automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are going to disrupt our society beyond what we can imagine.  Despite my angst and hostility over the risks and negative consequences of the tech invasion (don’t get me started on social media!), its conquest is assured.  We can hope to manage it, but I fear this will be like fighting against a tidal wave armed with a tablespoon.  Yes, there will be chatter about using AI responsibly with agreements and guardrails, but the appetite for the AI revolution will blow past all barriers and ethical restraints.  How well have we done protecting ourselves and our kids from the excesses of Meta (Facebook), Instagram, WhatsApp, Tik Tok, etc? (Answer: Not good!)

Just recently Meta announced that it will abandon fact checking for reasons that have much more to do with politics than avoiding censorship.  Even Mark Zuckerberg admitted that this meant that they were ‘going to catch less bad stuff.’

Should workers demand and expect protections if technology can do their jobs better or cheaper?  Not long ago SAG-AFTRA, a union of actors and television and radio artists, was highly agitated over the use of AI. Increasingly, I think we’ll be watching films starring digital ‘actors’ who will appear ‘human’.  If they can play their roles well and cost a fraction of traditional actors, should studios be prohibited from using them?  Should we outlaw autonomous driving trucks to protect truck drivers?

Let me get personal.  AI has entered my profession, and it is seeping across the medical landscape.  When an AI ‘physician’ can diagnose and treat patients better than I can, what should my position be?

 

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