Robodoc: What Does the Embrace of AI in Medicine Mean?
This month the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) returned to Las Vegas, attracting the latest and greatest that technology has to offer. Over 141 thousand attendees had the opportunity to marvel at the products that major companies, startups, and entrepreneurs had to offer. Last year, the resounding conclusion after CES was that artificial intelligence (AI) was everywhere. The CES takeaway from this year is that AI is getting better and is here to stay. Despite its progress and ubiquity, public sentiment toward AI remains highly skeptical–except in the field of medicine.
As this year’s CES demonstrated, hesitancy about AI has not stopped its adoption. More people are using AI in their everyday lives, and more businesses are relying on AI to optimize workflow. Forbes concluded after CES, “This year made it clear: AI is no longer a feature—it’s the foundation of the future.” The rapid progress of AI has made it extremely accessible to the general public. Wearable AI tools, apps, and household appliances are but a few examples of the way innovation has democratized this technology. Gallup polling indicates that, as of 2024, the majority of Americans use AI every single day, sometimes without even realizing it.
The same Gallup polling also reveals that, despite widespread use, more Americans have a negative view of AI than a positive one. Fears center around risks like the spread of false information and the degradation of social connections. While AI has been commonplace for years, the language of a “robot apocalypse” still looms large in public imagination. There is a pervasive narrative that, if left to progress, the technology will erode the very things that make us human.
One area of AI stands as an exception to the general unease and offers insight to how new and emerging technologies can be harnessed for good: medicine. Overall, people are optimistic about how AI can transform the process of diagnosis and treatment—Gallup data shows that 61% of people have a positive view of AI in medicine. And rightfully so, AI is the driving force behind key breakthroughs in recent years, from early disease detection to drug discovery.
In Louisiana, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is using AI to make the cancer care process more effective. At LSU, student athletes are monitored with AI stethoscopes, and at Tulane University, startups are receiving national recognition for channeling AI to fight antibiotic resistant diseases. These are but a few examples of the broader movement to make healthcare more accurate and accessible through technology. CES, a helpful glimpse into the near future, featured several health-oriented wearable AI devices that gave insights far beyond step count, predicting health trends and interpreting metrics as personalized as heart rate variability.
The embrace of AI in healthcare and medicine results from an understanding that, rather than detracting from human wellbeing, the technology is restoring and promoting it by addressing illnesses in ways previously unimaginable.
AI has the potential to do the same in every industry if bureaucratic schemes and overzealous regulation doesn’t get in the way. Like any technology, the process of refinement and integration takes time and effort. When the consumer and innovators are unencumbered by red tape and cynicism, AI can cure, optimize, and discover ways to improve health and human connection.
Links to Learn More:
AI and Public Health Series: Introduction – R Street Institute
Working Paper: Artificial Intelligence, Social Media, and the Politics of Anti-technology
