The impact of AI on physicians

I agree that the adoption and disruption of AI will be shaped by many factors. However, I don’t agree that AI is like previous technologies. Automation technologies (such as the steam engine) are very different than cognitive technologies (such as AI). The difference is that the latter have the ability to solve the new problems and opportunities they create. There is a real risk of the permanent displacement of human workers.

Secondly, while the idea of AI enhancing sub-specialities is intuitive due to the effects of past automation technologies, the impact of AI will be different. Today’s AI is narrow, not general (and is expected to remain that way for the foreseeable future). For that reason, I suspect a generalist physician more likely to survive in the age of AI than a specialist (assuming those qualifiers hold). I also think generalists are more apt to retain the emotional, human-to-human aspects of medicine that are less prone to automation.