Patrick Boyle

“What are new things I need to learn? And what are old things I don’t need to learn?” Those are among the key questions for medical students (and their teachers) as the breakneck progress of artificial intelligence (AI) transforms education, says Robert Wachter, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future.

At the start of the conversation with her doctor, the patient seemed to be recovering quite well in the intensive care unit (ICU). She was alert and spoke clearly, recalls Babar Khan, MD, a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine: “I thought, ‘This looks good, her orientation is good, she’s paying attention to me.’” Then the patient mentioned all the little people running around the room. “Look at these small people,” she said. Khan asked for more information.