AI medical capabilities or super-doctors? Controversy in the academic community
In September 2026, a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that AI had surpassed human doctors in five basic medical tasks: obtaining medical history, diagnosis, scheduling examinations, and managing chronic diseases. It predicted that within four years, AI might provide better medical care independently. The authors of the paper were ethicists Ezekiel Emanuel and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. John White, CEO of the American Medical Association, questioned that the evidence relied mostly on simulation experiments and lacked blinded clinical validation, emphasizing that AI should be limited to a supporting role led by doctors. The disagreement focused on whether and how AI could operate independently without human intervention.