AI paternalism in healthcare and Nigeria’s response to Tesla

Would you trust medical advice generated by artificial intelligence? That’s a question raised by even more headlines this week proclaiming that AI can diagnose a range of diseases. The implication is often that they are better, faster and cheaper than medical professionals.

But many of these technologies have well-known problems. They’re trained on limited or biased data, and they often don’t work as well for women and people of color as they do for white men.

And there is another problem. As these technologies begin to seep into healthcare, researchers say we’re seeing an increase in so-called AI paternalism. The fear is that physicians are inclined to trust AI at the expense of the patient’s own lived experiences, as well as their own clinical judgement. Read the full story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

Jessica’s story is from The Checkup, her weekly newsletter that gives you information on all things biotech. Register to receive it in your mailbox every Thursday.

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