Can AI be a Healing Agent?

A new tool for life advice?

I just finished the book “Life Worth Living”.  It reminded me of my experiences with the classes “The Search for Meaning” and “Exploring Medicine”.  It was fun to reminisce about that period of my life, but there is a new kind of response in development - Artificial Intelligence.

There is no question that technology has had a tremendous impact on healthcare with both its benefits and burdens.  What has been clear is that the benefits have frequently been exaggerated and the hazards minimized.  The AI technology is at another level particularly as it confronts the issue of “agency”.  

For now, my answer is “no” as to AI being a “healing agent”.  Information is not a healing agent and healing does not happen outside of a community.  Healing requires a context and connection that happens in trusted relationships.  

There maybe administrative benefits of the AI technology, but there remains BIG questions about our humanity and this new information technology in healthcare.

Marvin

References

Volf, M., Croasmun, M., & McAnnally-Linz, R. (2023). Life Worth Living. Penguin.

Naylor, T. H., Willimon, W. H., & Naylor, M. R. (1994). The Search for Meaning.

Goswami, R. (2023).  Google reportedly building A.I. that offers life advice

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/08/16/google-reportedly-building-ai-that-offers-life-advice.html

Clark P; Kim J; Aphinyanaphongs, Y.  Marketing and US Food and Drug Administration Clearance of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Enabled Software in and as Medical Devices: A Systematic Review. 

JAMA Network Open. 6(7):e2321792, 2023 07 03

Bremmer, i, Suleyman, M  (2023)  The AI Power Paradox Can States Learn to Govern Artificial Intelligence—Before It’s Too Late?

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/artificial-intelligence-power-paradox

Hage, M. L. (2016). Future Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2016/09/future-healing.html

van der Laan, J. M.  (2016). Narratives of Technology (1st ed. 2016 ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

Precarity

Lake Michigan Holland, Michigan, 

Personal Photo - 8/8/2023

“The angst of facing mortality has no remedy in probability.”

Paul Kalmanthi

“It seems, when we’re doing life correctly, 

Other children and adults begin to see hope in one another.”

Brad  Montague

The reality of this post pandemic year puts me into the category of “survivor”.  Currently, my health has been good since I have still been able to participate in most events around me.  The larger question is more than just participation; it is purpose.  What am I called to be in this overtime post pandemic period?  

The changes that we are living since the “end” of the Covid 19 pandemic are difficult to articulate.  There have been major changes in our living as well as our institutions.  The word that seems to best describe this time of deep uncertainty is “precarity”.  It is this disorientation  that requires a reassessment of plans that we once thought of as secure.  The “fog” of Covid is more than an individual symptom but a definition of what we are all feeling.

The answer for me is to continue learning, but in a different kind of classroom than schools, clinics and operating rooms.  It is in listening and reading together.  It is with what have been given to me as gifts - younger lives around me that are also searching for meaning and direction.  

Marvin

References

Kalanithi, Paul. When Breath Becomes Air (p. 134). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Montague, Brad. Becoming Better Grownups (p. 107). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. . Becoming Better Grownups (p. 107). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

End of the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/end-of-phe.html#:~:text=What You Need to Know,share certain data will change.

Singh TK; Zidar DA; McCrae K; Highland KB; Englund K; Cameron SJ; Chung MK

A Post-Pandemic Enigma: The Cardiovascular Impact of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2. Circulation Research. 132(10):1358-1373, 2023 05 12.

Hage, M. L. (2020). Our Healing.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2020/05/our-healing.html

Hage, M. L. (2022). Healing Ministries.

http://healingagents.blogspot.com/2022/06/healing-ministries.html