Doctors Warn That Med Students Are Surrendering Their Brains to Medical AIs That Are Even Worse than Regular Chatbots
"Although a doctor who has forgotten how to reason is recoverable, one who never learned how may not be." The post Doctors Warn That Med Students Are Surrendering Their Brains to Medical AIs That Are Even Worse than Regular Chatbots appeared first on Futurism .
Medical students are reportedly becoming overly reliant on AI tools to the detriment of their own cognitive abilities, according to two seasoned medical professionals. Simar Bajaj, a med student at Stanford University, and Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon, argue that the use of AI chatbots like OpenEvidence is causing a "danger of never-skilling" in doctors still in training.
The duo cites internal data showing that around two-thirds of US doctors utilize OpenEvidence, an AI tool specifically designed for clinicians. However, a recent study published in the journal Nature Medicine revealed that these medical-specific large language models performed worse than general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude at answering medical queries.
The AI tool even underperformed on par with Google's AI Overviews, which are known for their inaccuracies. While AI can aid in research, the authors emphasize that it is no substitute for traditional learning. They argue that the struggle to build a list of potential diagnoses during medical training is an essential part of the learning process.
AI not only expands what doctors can see but also inserts itself into the cognitive processes that training is meant to develop. This phenomenon of "cognitive offloading," where users increasingly rely on AI tools for their thinking, has been backed by research suggesting it can impair critical thinking and lead to lower brain activity during cognitive tasks.
In response to this growing concern, doctors from top medical schools have proposed stricter guidelines on the use of AI tools in training. They suggest requiring trainees to work through cases without AI assistance, similar to how pilots periodically disengage autopilot to fly by hand. Another deterrent could be the social stigma associated with using AI, as evidenced by a John Hopkins student who discovered that doctors who rely on AI are viewed with scorn and skepticism by their peers.
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