Chinese robot is the first machine to pass a Medical exam

Interesting article from China Daily:

A robot has passed the written test of China’s national medical licensing examination, an essential entrance exam for doctors, making it the first robot in the world to pass such an exam.

Its developer iFlytek Co Ltd, a leading Chinese artificial intelligence company, said on Thursday that the robot scored 456 points, 96 points higher than the required marks.

The artificial-intelligence-enabled robot can automatically capture and analyze patient information and make initial diagnosis. It will be used to assist doctors to improve efficiency in future treatments, iFlytek said.

This is part of broader efforts by China to accelerate the application of AI in healthcare, consumer electronics, and other industries.

Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, said, “We will officially launch the robot in March 2018. It is not meant to replace doctors. Instead, it is to promote better people-machine cooperation so as to boost efficiency.”

This news is interesting for two simple reasons:

1) We are living in a time of AI Deniers (I call them Flat-Earthers of Artificial Intelligence) where Gary Marcus is their greatest expression. At the same time, there is a mix of a great skeptical discourse regarding the hype of Deep Learning and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) with nonsensical criticisms, such as this example where there is denial against clear experimental results with disclaimers of methodological limitations; and

2) In terms of medical and economic resource allocation, the automation of these medical robot systems would bring a great social advance in the sense that a) there would be a greater democratization of access to preventive health for the less benefited, since costs would have a drastic reduction and b) there would potentially be a better allocation of the time of health professionals (e.g., doctors and nurses) in higher-value tasks for prevention or recovery/intervention for patients instead of the execution of repetitive procedures, such as a greater focus on diagnosis and treatment (and this is really important in Brazil given that 40% of newly graduated doctors fail the CREMESP exam - CREMESP is the Regional Medical Council of São Paulo. Furthermore, 70% of the doctors did not know how to measure blood pressure and 86% failed the approach to a traffic accident victim).

Conclusion

In a reality where at least 50% of all jobs can be eliminated from the labor market with automation and Artificial Intelligence, as well as the growth of demand for goods and services (with ever-increasing cost competitiveness), news like this is very welcome to put into perspective for societies that the correct understanding of the potential and limitations of Artificial Intelligence is the path to social development and economic prosperity.

As an author said at a conference I attended in Asia: “Artificial Intelligence is not here to take people’s jobs, but it is here to end the jobs of those who do not use it.”