British doctors skeptical that Artificial Intelligence could replace them

London: Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to make major disruption in health care, 80 per cent of doctors in the UK are skeptical of the technology replacing them, finds a survey. Nearly seven in 10 UK general practitioners (GPs) believed that it was unlikely that AI would be able to outperform them when it came to diagnosing patients.

While more than 60 per cent of GPs believed it was unlikely for AI to ever be able to replace doctors in decisions about when to refer patients to specialists, nearly 95 per cent believed it was extremely unlikely for the technology to provide empathic care to patients as well as or better than the average GP. “General practitioners believed that artificial intelligence could never replace them on empathy — yet this is a skill that does not require special medical expertise,” said Charlotte Blease, postdoctoral research student at Harvard Univerity’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) in Boston. “Our findings raise important questions about how current and future physicians integrate and harness the power of artificial intelligence, which could ultimately improve the delivery of care to patients,” she added. (IANS)

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