Another Sunday and another post…..with all my visits and stuff with my doctors I thought this article would be a good one and hopefully will make people think.
Most of my regulars know that I have no love for AI or anything to do with it….so when I read this article I felt it needed to be passed on…..
If you weren’t convinced we’re spiraling toward an actual cyberpunk future, a new bill seeking to let AI prescribe controlled drugs just might.
The proposed law was introduced in the House of Representatives by Arizona’s David Schweikert this month, where it was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for review. Its purpose: to “amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to clarify that artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies can qualify as a practitioner eligible to prescribe drugs.”
In theory, it sounds good. Engaging with the American healthcare system often feels like hitting yourself with a slow-motion brick, so the prospect of a perfect AI-powered medical practitioner that could empathically advise on symptoms, promote a healthy lifestyle, and dispense crucial medication sounds like a promising alternative.
But in practice, today’s AI isn’t anywhere near where it’d need to be to provide any of that, nevermind prescribing potentially dangerous drugs, and it’s not clear that it’ll ever get there.
Schweikert’s bill doesn’t quite declare a free-for-all — it caveats that these robodoctors could only be deployed “if authorized by the State involved and approved, cleared, or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration” — but downrange, AI medicine is clearly the goal. Our lawmakers evidently feel the time — and money — is right to remove the brakes and start letting AI into the health care system.
The Congressman’s optimism aside, AI has already fumbled in healthcare repeatedly — like the time an OpenAI-powered medical record tool was caught fabricating patients’ medical histories, or when a Microsoft diagnostic tool confidently asserted that the average hospital was haunted by numerous ghosts, or when an eating disorder helpline’s AI Chatbot went off the rails and started encouraging users to engage in disordered eating.
https://futurism.com/neoscope/new-law-ai-replace-doctor-prescribe-drugs
Sorry but as long as I can I will resist this ‘service’ ….I do not want soul-less piece of tech crap diagnosing my medical situation. and because I am old hopefully I will pass on before this is the rule of the day.
Does this make Americans healthier?
Will this protect us from debilitating disease?
Will this improve Americans quality of life?
What say you?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
AI doctors/prescribers? That’s a huge NO from me I’m afraid.
Best wishes, Pete.
Me too and hopefully I will have left this plane when it because standard. chuq
AI stuff getting increasingly frightening. Not only can it be used to infiltrate, capture and manipulate all the personal info and matters of individuals but will be able to do the same for information on the matters of entire nations. Can we expect this uncontrollable AI monster to be using ICBMs on each other ?
Darn good question Carl…..chuq
Something else to worry about. There is a lot going on that does not look good.
Hope you feel better.
It certainly does not…..I worry about the future and AI is very worrisome. chuq
Letting AI diagnose and prescribe is the natural outcome of medical practices over the last century or so. When was the last time your doctor made a house call? Yup, never. All your doctor knows about you is what information you share in his office. And now, in the computer age, you’re not even a person any more, you’re a collection of data points. The doctor doesn’t know if you have a sloppy house or a neat house; if you have books or only a television; if you keep healthy food at home or junk food; if you have good relations with your family or tense relations. Blood tests and x-rays don’t tell your whole health story. So really, turning over your life to a machine is the next step in the advancement of humanity. If your doctor spends 90% of your visit staring at her computer screen and typing, then you can be sure she has an AI salivating in the wings, lusting to tamper with your life in the name of Silicon Valley. Elon Musk and his data-driven cohort of billionaires want the right to call the shots in your health care, and they have just the machines they are certain can do it, if you can afford the price. Yup, the greed of our new billionaire overlords, our greed-driven oligarchs, will determine the quality of your life and whether you will live or die after a visit from your AI doctor via a browser or a phone app.
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This is just sick( no pun intended)…..chuq