The download: AI and tough decisions, and toys’ significance
We’re talking about the kinds of life-and-death decisions that come up for very ill people. We’re talking about the kinds of life-and-death decisions that come up for very unwell people.
Often, the patient isn’t able to make these decisions–instead, the task falls to a surrogate. This can be a very difficult and distressing situation. A group of ethicalists has an idea for a tool which they think could make life easier. The tool will be trained using information from the person’s email, social media, browsing history, etc. It could also predict what the patient would choose based on these factors. The team describes the tool as a digital psychological twin. It hasn’t been developed yet. We do not know how accurate the tool would be or how to ensure that it will not be misused. The biggest question, however, is whether anyone would want to use this technology. This story was first published in The Checkup, a weekly newsletter that gives you the inside scoop on health and biotech. Sign up to receive the newsletter every Thursday. It can be helpful to make difficult decisions, but automation cannot do so alone. Read the whole story.
+ AI systems are biased because they reflect the people who built them. We should ask ourselves how much of the decision-making process we want to delegate to AI.
