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Lead story The ranks of people who have never asked an AI chatbot for health advice are thinning. After all, why wouldn’t you type your symptoms into a system that promises to plow through a vast quantity of information to puzzle out a diagnosis in seconds? In fact, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude are getting better and better at diagnosing health concerns. That really isn’t surprising, notes Andrew Parsons, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Virginia who studies how doctors make clinical decisions. The pattern-matching and categorization process of AI is pretty similar to the one doctors use to make diagnoses. But where AI falls short, Parsons explains, is knowing how to use that information to decide – along with the patient – what to do about it. That decision “depends on who that patient is and what they value, and on a doctor’s judgment about where the evidence is reliable and where genuine uncertainty remains,” he writes – and AI simply isn’t up to the task of navigating that kind of nuance. [ Understand what’s going on in Washington and around the world. Get our Politics Weekly newsletter. ] |
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Alla Katsnelson Associate Health Editor |
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The mental shortcuts doctors use in diagnosis aren’t that different from how chatbots come up with answers to your health questions. Philip Dulian/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Andrew Parsons, University of Virginia Uncertainty is common in medicine, and AI isn’t very good at navigating it. |
Environment + Energy |
Ivis García, Texas A&M University Subsidized insurance makes waterfront property seem safer than it is for wealthier buyers, while many low-income homeowners face repeat disasters with no help. |
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Science + Technology |
Wendy Whitman Cobb, Air University NASA has several contracts with Blue Origin as part of its Artemis program – this setback for the company could delay the program. Douglas Goodwin, University of California, Los Angeles; California Institute of the Arts A photographer describes how your phone camera flattens and dulls the colors in photos – and how to regain an appreciation for the wide spectrum of colors.
💬 Comments open |
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Health + Medicine |
Andrea Dwyer, University of Colorado Anschutz The American Cancer Society updated its colorectal cancer screening guidelines to reflect advances in technology and increase access to screening. |
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Politics + Society |
Patty Heyda, Washington University in St. Louis From who gets to vote to how people travel and where taxpayer dollars are funneled, politicians and urban planners wield maps to control public imagination. |
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Economy + Business |
Katie Savin, California State University, Sacramento; Callie Freitag, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Matthew Borus, Binghamton University, State University of New York Researchers learned from dozens of interviews that the usual ways of resolving complex cases, escalating issues and holding the authorities accountable no longer work. James Malm, College of Charleston Whether or not there’s a will, the results are the same.
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Ethics + Religion |
Benjamin Park, Sam Houston State University; Nicholas Shrum, University of Virginia Latter-day Saints have long valued the US Constitution’s promise of religious freedom – but the church has also tested its boundaries. |
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Education |
David Blazar, University of Maryland Many Black teachers were pushed out of classrooms from the 1950s through ‘70s. Despite new recruitment programs, the teacher workforce remains mostly white. |
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International |
Kathleen Murray Preble, University of Texas at Arlington; Jennifer E. O'Brien, University of Texas at Arlington Public awareness campaigns around the World Cup and other sporting events are well intentioned – but not backed by research. Alemayehu Fentaw Weldemariam, Indiana University In parliamentary democracies, prime ministers remain in office for as long as they retain the confidence of parliament. |
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Reader Comments 💬 |
“I never expected to have so many friends, colleagues and acquaintances to be working at my age - 74, and many of them full-time. In my parents’ generation, working at this age was limited largely to persons working in their family owned businesses, or widows generally without children, navigating through old age having to have enough income to survive. "Now the script has reversed. Many seniors I know are working to produce the ongoing income needs formerly covered by private corporate pensions. Instead of retiring and enjoying the fruits of their labor, they are still chugging along to meet not only their economic needs, but those of their children and often grandchildren.” – Reader Bob Moore on the story Older Americans are often compelled to keep working – and then criticized for not stepping aside More of The Conversation
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