Abstract
Recent developments in technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI), have changed how we view the world. The advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is demonstrated by its capacity to learn from extensive datasets through its machine-learning and deep-learning prowess, and its adoption in the medical space, has initiated discussions about its potential to replace human medical clinicians in all medical domains due to their remarkable efficiency. While optimism exists regarding the potential of AI to replace clinicians, I contend in this minor dissertation that the more important question is whether medical artificial intelligence could be considered good doctors.
Now, although discourses on medical AI have been occupied with debates about the possibility of AIS replacing human clinicians, none have thoroughly explored whether they can be good doctors. If AIS, through machine learning, can perform clinicians’ tasks like medical diagnosis, prognosis, treatment recommendation and others reliably and effectively, can we regard them as good doctors? I argue that given how AIs can carry out clinical tasks such as diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment recommendation, and their ability to assimilate a huge dataset and self-improve, they should be considered good doctors. My argument rests on the claim that recent developments and advancements in machine learning, deep learning, neural networks and natural language processing have equipped medical AI technologies with the necessary tools and functions to execute clinical tasks in the same way human doctors do. Moreover, aside from the technical aspects of medical AI technology, I contend these systems can satisfy various ethical principles and tenets of medicine.
This research adds to the body of literature on AI ethics since the assessment of the potential of medical AI technologies is essential to determining how it will affect patient care and safety. Verifying the precision and dependability of AI-based diagnostics, prognosis, and treatment (recommendation) is crucial to guaranteeing good health results for patients. More so, a discourse about AI doctors can also further discussions about how to regulate the use of AIs in healthcare to ensure accountability and standards compliance, building a legal and regulatory framework for their adoption.