Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: Are We Ready?

AbstractIn spite of my personal belief in the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), reading Cathy O'Neil's book “Weapons of Math Destruction” left me feeling unsettled.1 She describes how flawed and unchecked algorithms are widely applied in areas that affect us all: hiring, credit scoring, access to education, and insurance pricing. In one example, a fixed percentage of teachers in a U.S. region was dismissed every year based on biased and opaque algorithms. The authors concluded that such algorithms act as “weapons of math destruction,” perpetuate and amplify societal biases, act unethically, and harm vuln…