AI and Robotics in Healthcare
Healthcare is going to become more of a hot issue as the global Baby Boomer compadre -who collectively were the largest generation of humans in the history of mankind until 2019– are all entering retirement. The future technologies in healthcare mainly come down to two components: artificial intelligence and robotics. One of the hardest parts about being a doctor is properly diagnosing your patient. Each year millions of people globally are misdiagnosed, leading to further complications and unnecessary suffering. One of the solutions to this is the combination of facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence for the purpose of diagnosing diseases. This combination will save countless lives and stop unnecessary suffering. Artificial Intelligence also plays a vital role in genomics, specifically, it has been instrumental in technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9. Which can edit DNA sequences to modify defects in genes and treat diseases. Legislation regarding these technologies should be focused on the ethicality of cherry-picking genetic traits, especially when it’s done on purpose (designer babies). Regulators need to draw the line between what is acceptable when it comes to gene editing and what is considered eugenics.
Robotics in medicine have traditionally served the role of assisting humans either diagnose diseases or treat them. Specifically, many types of surgeries now routinely use robots to do complicated procedures, eliminating human errors. Modular robots have also been used for decades for the use in therapeutics and prosthetic arms and legs. The next evolution of robots in medicine will be artificial organs, which will greatly increase the average human lifespan. Most likely this technology will be very expensive, and only the richest individuals in society will be able to benefit from this innovation. At least, in the beginning. We should be mindful of what longer human lifespans means for society and culture. It would necessitate a complete reshuffling of the current retirement schemes in place around the world; the age of retirement would eventually need to be raised drastically, as people live longer. This will be hard to do; people will be furious and will fight for their right to be retired at the current age.
