Dr Khullar suggests that AI will exacerbate biases in medical practice. His fundamental concern is that machine learning will codify biases and become self-fulfilling prophesies. But there is scant evidence that AI will worsen these disparities.
If anything, a machine-learning point of view better addresses his concerns than a traditional one, because they can be much more quickly updated to correct for identified biases. Doctors spend years and years of hard work becoming efficient and effective human algorithms themselves, and updating those human algorithms in the face of newer evidence is difficult. In standard practice, biases are often invisible and uncodified to begin with. "Moral intuition" is something all doctors use, but it's also something of a black box in nearly every real-world use case.
If anything, a machine-learning point of view better addresses his concerns than a traditional one, because they can be much more quickly updated to correct for identified biases. Doctors spend years and years of hard work becoming efficient and effective human algorithms themselves, and updating those human algorithms in the face of newer evidence is difficult. In standard practice, biases are often invisible and uncodified to begin with. "Moral intuition" is something all doctors use, but it's also something of a black box in nearly every real-world use case.