Who’s the real storyteller of numbers? A new-old perspective of Humans vs AI

AI in healthcare continues to be the big picture and the fine print. No one doubts its benefits, but as the AI wave gets bigger, the role of humans in marshalling AI’s contributions is like an under tug; if we don't pay heed, it may carry us off to unfamiliar shores.

 The most compelling catalysis of AI is its ability to create advocates for humanity. In healthcare, it enables a physician or a specialist to embody the 'one for many' philosophy by helping the medical experts use AI for the common good. It allows them to advance the majority's interests who do not have access to the data they generate and which is all about them. There is nothing more comforting and reassuring for a patient than knowing that they are not data generators but unique individuals who will get the specific solutions and remedies they need with a bit of help from AI and a lot of commitment from their physician.

 The latter sentiment must gain its rightful place in AI vs human wisdom. When these two meet at the right place and time, healthcare strides off in the right direction.

 I use the term 'human wisdom' and not intelligence because AI's intelligence supersedes the human ability to compute and calculate disease patterns. AI will give us the data, but it will not interpret it. AI can take the horse to the water but cannot make it drink. Humans need to study the data and use it in the right way. Our job is to interpret the data correctly using our insight, experience, analytical acumen, and intuition - attributes AI lacks - to achieve the desired outcomes.

 Human wisdom is the only bridge that can connect the potential of AI data and its conversion into applicability. Even notable initiatives like the Human Diagnosis Project are underlined by the compatibility of machine learning projections and human (read medical specialists/doctors) insights and experience-based conclusions.

 Why is this partnership an excellent modern morality tale? First, it sustains the human touch in medicine that is its bedrock. Second, it demonstrates the role of AI as a functional benefit than an aspirational projection in overly enthusiastic forecasts. Finally, it brings technology and humans together as complementary forces, a virtue that must triumph over the continuing fear of human displacement by technology.

 The mingling of human potential with machine excellence is not a new bend in the river of our evolution. We have prospered in tandem through every era of invention, discovery, and technological leaps, moving closer to the human ideal of perfection. AI is another path of discovery, and there will be many more in the coming decades and centuries.

 But all of them will need humans to give them meaning.

AI may be the door to the future, but we hold the key.