Artificial intelligence and medicine: Hype, hubris, and the humanity we can’t replace

ABSTRACT

The development of generative artificial intelligence has caused many to wonder if AI technology will replace human jobs, including physicians. While AI can produce impressive output, extrapolations about its future capabilities are limited by the inherent unpredictability of the future. What’s more, AI technology is grounded in a physical reality with physical limitations, including the vast amount of resources required to develop and maintain AI algorithms. These algorithms cannot think, intuit, or possess any understanding of the information they produce nor the physical world people inhabit. Furthermore, the practice of medicine cannot be reduced to algorithms or formulae, and requires the creativity, intuition, experience, and humanity only found in a person. The proposition that AI can replace human physicians both undercuts the complexity of medicine and the richness of the human experience, reducing it to mere information output.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, AI, ChatGPT, generative AI, general artificial intelligence, algorithm, machine learning, large language model, technology, medicine, healthcare, doctor, physician, future of medicine, humanity, clinical reasoning