Say ‘ahh’ for AI

Would you go to an AI doctor? Google researchers have published a study showing that its medical chatbot more accurately diagnosed respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses in conversations with actor patients than a panel of doctors. Google said the “patients” also gave the chatbot higher marks for bedside manner, finding the bot more empathetic than the human physicians.

Nature, which wrote about the study, noted that the experimental chatbot, the Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer, or AMIE, hasn’t been used on human patients just yet. It also isn’t a peer-reviewed study.

But if chatbots could help assess and diagnose patients, the scientists behind the paper argue, it could democratize access to high-quality medical care and “help realize better health outcomes.”