Why AI Is Better than Doctors at the Most Human Part of Medicine
The hope is that artificial intelligence will eventually do much of the work that makes it difficult for doctors to spend enough time with patients.
Illustration: Erik Carter for Bloomberg
It was late at night the first time Rachel Stoll turned to ChatGPT for some reassurance. Stoll has a rare disease called Cyclic Cushing’s Syndrome, which causes unpredictable and dangerous spikes in the hormone cortisol. Years earlier, she’d had the brain tumor that kicked off her disease surgically removed. Now the tumor was back and Stoll was more distressed than ever — not just about her worsening symptoms and the possibility of a second brain surgery, but because the doctor treating her seemed to have grown weary of Stoll’s constant questions and worries.
Stoll had never used ChatGPT before, but when she typed in her symptoms and questions, she was stunned at the responses. The answers were accurate and helpful, but most impressive to Stoll, they were comprehensive. In her appointments with doctors, Stoll had always tried to keep her questions short. “I can’t say everything, because there’s a time limit, which is understandable,” she says. With ChatGPT, there was no limit.