Coming soon: The Doctor & The Algorithm: Promise, Peril, and the Future of Health AI (Oxford University Press).
Description: In recent years, technologists and computer scientists have promised that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize the practice of medicine. Scientific journals, popular news media, and university press releases all assure us that doctors supported by AI will be smarter, faster, more accurate, and even more ethical than their merely human counterparts. Despite this enthusiasm, a growing body of evidence documents the many dangers of AI, both within and beyond medicine. These new technologies can replicate human biases under a veneer of objectivity and lead to considerable harms. The goal of The Doctor & The Algorithm, therefore, is to explore both the promise and peril of health AI. In so doing, I combine insights from science and technology studies, critical algorithm studies, and public interest informatics to better understand how health AI is made, promoted, and justified. The Doctor & The Algorithm leverages AI, itself, to investigate the foundations of machine learning technologies and the use of promotional language in health AI research. Along the way, I explore both how the overly enthusiastic embrace of health AI can lead to unintended consequences for patients and public health and how new initiatives in ethical and just AI can support better futures for algorithmic medicine. The Doctor & The Algorithm closes with recommendations for practices and frameworks that can support these more ethical and just approaches health AI.