HEALTHCARE · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE · PATIENT EXPERIENCE Years ago, at a government hospital, I heard a surgeon say about a patient who kept asking him, "She must be a teacher." He was half-joking. She turned out to be one. It became my private joke: anyone who asks that many questions must be a teacher. I didn't know I'd think of that remark again. I think of it now because the patient who asks too many questions is no longer rare. She is in my family. Perhaps you have encountered her, too. A new kind of conversation My mother, my uncles, and my aunts are not medical professionals. When an unfamiliar symptom appears, they don't know the terminology, the likely causes, or the right questions to ask. But they have found ChatGPT and Gemini, and they talk to them like buddies. A symptom prompts a question, an answer prompts another, and nobody waits. Voice input matters most. They don't have to type a carefully worded query or know the medical term. They s...
It is not the strongest or the most intelligent of the species that survive, but the one most adaptable to change. Charles Darwin. Technology is transforming us into a data set. What do we eat, what do we do, what do we see, what do we like, how do we entertain, what do we search for? Moore's Law emphasizes that the pace of technological change will continue to grow. Disruptive technologies are on the rise, disrupting our very existence. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about ChatGPT; inquisitively, I wanted to try it. My tech-driven sons helped me and disrupted the otherwise creative process I relied on so much. It was inspiring to know that GPT could suggest recipes based on the ingredients you have, or even suggest travel destinations within your budget. Interestingly enough. The origin of these innovative ideas prompted me to think of a new, evolving species —a digital species, much like Avatar. A digital species is a great idea to write about. I outlined my p...