DOC Debate

The first evening at DOC, we got Reid Hoffman, Mike Krieger, Anitha Kannan, Neil Parikh debating whether AI will replace doctors, with Jordan Shlain, MD as moderator. Two versions of Anthropic's Claude provided arguments for both sides and a third version was a judge. As John Battelle described, "a majority of the humans in the room voted that [...] AI will NOT replace doctors" but the AI judge determined that "AI WILL replace doctors over time". The picture here is his.

Now, let's rewind and consider a few things:

1️⃣ The room was 50% physicians. No bias at all.

2️⃣ The final Claude judge sided with Mike, not suspicious at all 🥸.

3️⃣ Neil and Reid addressed the question as posed and argued that doctors + AI is the future, with a displacement of doctors' roles and a need for an overhaul of medical education. Doctors of the human type will still be needed.

4️⃣ Mike and Anitha did not directly argue the question as posed but reframed it for their own purpose: the several billion humans who don't have access to a doctor will benefit from an AI doctor.

I think both are right! AI offers a way to empower doctors, nurses, caretakers, especially in areas that are more "AI-friendly" such as diagnosis triage. But the human connection matters a lot to health.