Has the holy flock of the AI naysayers been dwindling or have been able to hold fort both in their strength and the strength of their arguments? Even if they have been able to, it can only be because of their inability to understand its capabilities for specific tasks and areas; how much ground it has traversed in the last two years and where it is projected to reach in the next year or so. The professions which were least likely to be impacted may have already felt the heat. Even the great human expertise is under challenge as never in human history.
Let’s start with a simple AI premise, that if all the books in your library are fed into it, it can give you any essay, note, narrative with exact references in whichever form, you keep interacting till the time the cows come home or you are fully satisfied. When the great human art of cognition is being taken over, how long will it take to surmount empathy, human touch etc as things go by. Think of the medical profession, one still cannot think of a doctor being machine replaceable. How, for what tasks and in what quantum, can be debated, but the issue is already raging fire.
A US based seasoned pulmonologist makes an open declaration on social media that ‘I am going to lose my job,’ then you ought to sit up and notice. The fact that he brings forth to the public domain is that AI has outpaced doctors’ with two decades of experience in seconds. Can machines replace professional expertise is the question. Conversely, have machines gained that expertise already and an outmoded thought process is not allowing us to accept that. A seasoned pulmonologist, eyes locked on a chest x-ray, deciphering shadows and streaks with confidence of someone, who in two decades has learnt to read it like a map.
What you see now is a machine outperforming you in moments. Turn on Lunit INSIGHT CXR, an AI powered X-ray interpretation tool, in seconds, it highlights the same diagnoses of a seasoned pulmonologist, if not better. It stripped away the illusion that his decades of training offered him insulation from the future. The profession itself seems to be at the edge of a professional cliff. The naysayers narrative of creative, skilled and interpretive professions would be safe, is not holding true. Is medicine still one of the final frontiers; requiring years of education, precise judgement, and above, human empathy. When the Berlin Wall has been demolished, can unification be far away?
FOR THE AI ONSLAUGHT THERE IS NO SACRED COW!
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.