Paging Dr. Bot

September 8, 2023

(The Hedgehog Review) – The basic defect of artificial intelligence follows from this principle. Using descriptive sketches of mental status drawn from reference books, journal articles, and tests, AI would have got my elderly Lebanese patient all wrong. She knew the French kings and their mistresses, something she learned decades ago perusing her family’s library, but not the name of the recently elected American president. Since knowing the president’s name is standard on most tests of mental status, AI would have mistakenly judged her to have an “intact long-term memory with a loss of short-term memory,” and awarded her the ridiculous diagnosis of “altered mental status,” or even senile dementia. It is why AI cannot replace doctors or other professionals who rely to some degree on intuition. Doing so courts ridiculous outcomes. (Read More)