“The machines today are like toddlers learning how to walk. They stumble. They’re not very good. They make mistakes.” — Anmol Madan

One in three American adults are already using AI for health information — with or without their doctors’ permission. The machines, in other words, are already seeing us. This will chill some Americans in our summer of luddite discontent. For others, however, like the San Francisco-based medical tech entrepreneur Anmol Madan, the appearance of doctor AI in our lives is mostly good news.

In his new book, The Machines Will See You Now, Madan lays out what he calls a “human roadmap” to “autonomous health care.” I’m not entirely sure what he means by “human” in a Blade Runner-style world where machine and man are quickly merging. But by “autonomous,” which I suspect is a euphemism, Madan means artificial intelligence.

What worries Madan about our current moment is the broken dialogue over AI. On the one hand, we have tech utopians promising a totally automated healthcare industry. Then we have an anxious establishment struggling to change America’s archaic and often dysfunctional medical system. And, of course, American consumers (if that’s the right word) who are already using ChatGPT or, more troublingly, TikTok, as their doctor.

America spends $4.7 trillion on a healthcare industry which compares poorly with the medical systems of other wealthy countries. Madan’s “parallel universe,” he promises, would cost half as much and double access. The machines will see you now. Like it or not, Dr AI is our all-too-human future.

Five Takeaways

• One in Three Already Ask the Machines. A third of American adults already use AI for health information — if not ChatGPT, then TikTok. $4.7 trillion buys the worst outcomes among peer nations; his parallel universe: half the cost, twice the access.

• The Waymo Scale for Medicine. Self-driving levels applied to healthcare: level zero is today; level one guides the radiologist; levels two and three add human-reviewed automation. The pilot stays in the cockpit.

• Toddlers Learning to Walk. Today’s medical AI stumbles and needs layers of protection. What may never come: human perception — and proof that chatbot relationships actually heal.

• The Behavior-Change Trillion. A trillion dollars of the problem is behavior. Machines can personalize the space between doctor visits — unless, Andrew objects, the exercise reminder gets deleted as AI slop.

• Priceless. Trust, Slippery Sam, and the bloodwork question — keep health data on HIPAA-bound platforms. The bot test: “I’m quite flawed, and I’m often wrong.” Anmol, in Sanskrit: priceless.

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Buy The Machines Will See You Now: anmolmadan.com

Chapters:

00:00:31 Introduction: one in three of us already ask the machines
00:01:28 Did AI write this book? (Keith Teare’s twenty minutes)
00:02:38 The broken dialogue: exuberance vs anxiety
00:05:03 One in three: celebrate or worry?
00:05:54 $4.7 trillion for the worst outcomes: the parallel universe
00:08:33 Why is American health care broken?
00:14:04 Isn’t personalization what a doctor should do?
00:15:28 The Waymo scale: from cruise control to full autonomy
00:17:59 If Waymo removed the drivers, why keep the doctors?
00:19:54 What will machines never be able to do?
00:20:40 Toddlers learning to walk
00:22:09 “That wasn’t my question”
00:22:37 The never list: perception, relationships, benchmarks
00:26:25 Maybe fewer therapists isn’t such a bad thing
00:27:14 Privacy: the benevolent universe and the real one
00:29:57 Slippery Sam and the trust problem
00:31:47 Mansions and homeless armies: is San Francisco the future?
00:33:31 Jeff Dean, 996, and why it happens here
00:35:43 The behavior-change trillion
00:39:38 AI slop vs the exercise reminder
00:40:44 “How would you convince me you aren’t a bot?”
00:41:24 Priceless: thanks and goodbye