The word “diagnosis,” he reminded me, comes from the Greek for “knowing apart.” Machine-learning algorithms will only become better at such knowing apart—at partitioning, at distinguishing moles from melanomas. But knowing, in all its dimensions, transcends those task-focussed algorithms. In the realm of medicine, perhaps the ultimate rewards come from knowing together.
Source: A.I. Versus M.D. What happens when diagnosis is automated?
This New Yorker article by Siddhartha Mukherjee explores the implications for practice and diagnostic reasoning in a time when software is increasingly implicated in clinical decision-making. While the article is more than a year old (a long time in AI and machine learning research), it still stands up as an excellent, insightful overview of the state of AI-based systems in the domain of clinical care. It’s a long read but well worth it.