In the UK it's already bad as it is - seeing a GP or doctor in person is essentially impossible. AI use will only worsen the issue. You can already use "virtual gps" where if you tell them you broke a nail or farted they-ll tell you you either have covid or cancer. Buyers beware.
'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
41–50 of 168 posts
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#42I'm not sure I understand why AI is supposed to make anything better, at least under the regulatory regime we have right now. 1. AI doesn't do anything new. It's just human thinking done better in the best case scenario. So the plus side is that we may come up with ideas that a human might have come up with 10-15 years later. However, a lack of ideas is not the problem we face at all. We have solutions to nearly ever…
There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The over-reliance on one size fits all "solutions" are what got us into this mess, and AI will prove just another bandaid with its' own problems, until we realize this.
Yes and no - sometimes you need tailored complex care from a professional. Sometimes you need routine treatment, but it's going to take 3 months to get an appointment with the given specialist, or maybe in the case of rural areas there isn't even one within 1000km of you.
A lot of good can be done by extending "one size fits all" solutions for simple things there's just no capacity for
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#43From the article linked by Techdirt: “executives have sought to almost entirely subordinate clinical case managers’ judgment to the computer’s calculations”
Sounds like the issue is the executives. What does this have to do with “AI”? Also, the company that built this tech (naviHealth) was started in 2012. Their product existed long before large language models were created.
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no solutions, only tradeoffs. The over-reliance on one size fits all "solutions" are what got us into this mess, and AI will prove just another bandaid with its' own problems, until we realize this.
Yes and no - sometimes you need tailored complex care from a professional. Sometimes you need routine treatment, but it's going to take 3 months to get an appointment with the given specialist, or maybe in the case of rural areas there isn't even one within 1000km of you. A lot of good can be done by extending "one size fits all" solutions for simple things there's just no capacity for
A naïve readthrough would lead one to that conclusion perhaps but the elephant in the room here is capitalism. Pragmatically, any "good enough" solution will be used to replace skilled care to improve patient throughput and thus the bottom line.
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#45Earlier discussion on this topic, with the original source link from ArsTechnica: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38299921 (Nov 17, 2023) As I said on that thread: the dangers of AI will always come down to human decisions made on how it should be applied. These 'solutions' will come from the McKinseys and IBMs of the world to serve hospital CEO needs, not those of patients or care providers. For those thinking…
It seems the Big Data hype never really died down - it just changed the name
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#46I'm not sure I understand why AI is supposed to make anything better, at least under the regulatory regime we have right now. 1. AI doesn't do anything new. It's just human thinking done better in the best case scenario. So the plus side is that we may come up with ideas that a human might have come up with 10-15 years later. However, a lack of ideas is not the problem we face at all. We have solutions to nearly ever…
You don't understand because you think we have a society built around making life better for everyone. It's not. Our society currently is optimized for one thing: Making sure the rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor. In that respect, AI is amazing. AI requires a small upfront cost, then can do the job of thousands of people for the pay of less than one. It works 24 hours, and will never ask for more money. And it w…
> Making sure the rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor.
It doesn't explain how Sears managed themselves into bankruptcy, handing everything to the likes of Amazon despite having all the money in the world, comparatively.
It also doesn't explain how EVs are taking off. I've seen multiple conspiratorial documentaries about why the oil companies will never allow EVs to ever take hold.
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#47I'm not sure I understand why AI is supposed to make anything better, at least under the regulatory regime we have right now. 1. AI doesn't do anything new. It's just human thinking done better in the best case scenario. So the plus side is that we may come up with ideas that a human might have come up with 10-15 years later. However, a lack of ideas is not the problem we face at all. We have solutions to nearly ever…
1. AI is broadly accessible. While it definitely has its downsides, I think there's a valid argument to be made that access to AI medical advice is better than access to no medical advice.
2. AI can hold vastly more knowledge in its "head" than a doctor. There are many rare conditions that a doctor rarely sees. That doctor doesn't have enough time to spend researching these kinds of things for their patients, but an AI might be able to analyze their medical records/test results/etc. and come up with possible diagnoses that a regular primary care physician couldn't. If these diagnoses go to the PCP for evaluation (as opposed to going straight to the patient), what is the downside or harm?
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#48Earlier discussion on this topic, with the original source link from ArsTechnica: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38299921 (Nov 17, 2023) As I said on that thread: the dangers of AI will always come down to human decisions made on how it should be applied. These 'solutions' will come from the McKinseys and IBMs of the world to serve hospital CEO needs, not those of patients or care providers. For those thinking…
The Economist thinks things are better[1]. In that costs are not rising faster than average inflation any more.
So not lower than before, but lower than was expected for 2023 a few years ago.
For those blocked by the paywall, the article lists causes for the slowing growth as: productivity improvements in paperwork, cheaper technology for dialysis, among other things, the Affordable Care Act, non-US countries insisting on generic drugs more often, and slower-than-inflation growth in median income (the rich hoovering up all the money).
1.https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/10/26/h...
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#49I'm not sure I understand why AI is supposed to make anything better, at least under the regulatory regime we have right now. 1. AI doesn't do anything new. It's just human thinking done better in the best case scenario. So the plus side is that we may come up with ideas that a human might have come up with 10-15 years later. However, a lack of ideas is not the problem we face at all. We have solutions to nearly ever…
You don't understand because you think we have a society built around making life better for everyone. It's not. Our society currently is optimized for one thing: Making sure the rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor. In that respect, AI is amazing. AI requires a small upfront cost, then can do the job of thousands of people for the pay of less than one. It works 24 hours, and will never ask for more money. And it w…
I disagree with this. There's a lot of evidence that modern society has made things much better for everyone.
That doesn't mean that there aren't negative influences in modern society. The rich wanting to get richer is definitely one of the major ones that is particularly powerful right now.
But that's why society is a process. You gotta fight back and moderate the negative influences, and boost the more positive ones.
I think the question whether AI will fall on either the positive or negative side of the ledger is wrong in itself. AI will provide a lever to magnify whichever direction society and people were going in anyways independent of AI. It's a tool, and hopefully a really powerful tool, but it's not a God. It can be used equally for good and bad.
And if you believe, like I do (and by all appearances you do too), that our current society is balanced to benefit bad actors over good actors (where bad/good are being defined in terms of benefiting society overall), the magnifying effect of AI is likely to magnify the net negative.
The one advantage of something new like AI coming around is that, I believe, the primary reason open democratic societies allow themselves to become tilted in favor of bad actors is because of complacency...it's usually a slow shift rather than a single big change. The arrival of a major chance like AI forces society and everyone in it to once again take stock of where society stands.
This gives us an opportunity to change the tilt of our society to promote good actors again, before AI truly starts having an impact, which gives us an opportunity to ensure AI magnifies a net benefit, rather than a net negative, for society.
And frankly I think we are closer to having that reckoning than we've ever been in my few decades on this planet, so overall I'm optimistic about AI. But again, whether we benefit or suffer with AI will be independent of AI itself.
Re: 'AI' Is Supercharging Our Broken Healthcare System's Worst Tendencies
#50I'm not sure I understand why AI is supposed to make anything better, at least under the regulatory regime we have right now. 1. AI doesn't do anything new. It's just human thinking done better in the best case scenario. So the plus side is that we may come up with ideas that a human might have come up with 10-15 years later. However, a lack of ideas is not the problem we face at all. We have solutions to nearly ever…
You don't understand because you think we have a society built around making life better for everyone. It's not. Our society currently is optimized for one thing: Making sure the rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor. In that respect, AI is amazing. AI requires a small upfront cost, then can do the job of thousands of people for the pay of less than one. It works 24 hours, and will never ask for more money. And it w…
> AI requires a small upfront cost, then can do the job of thousands of people
That's the same with every efficiency improvement. Efficiency improvements (like AI) aren't zero sum. When production costs go down, competition forces prices to also go down, which then leads to more wealth for everyone not just the capital owners (even if it disproportionately benefits capital owners).
People are made redundant and then find jobs in other parts of the economy where they're actually needed. This is a painful but necessary corrective mechanism for the economy to remain dynamic and productive and innovative.
That said, I still want a global wealth tax.