Trust me I’m a chatbot: why AI in healthcare won’t pass the Turing test (Preprint)

<sec> <title>UNSTRUCTURED</title> <p>Over the next decade one issue which will dominate sociotechnical studies in health informatics is the extent to which the promise of artificial intelligence in healthcare will be realised, and the social and ethical issues which accompany this. A useful thought experiment is the application of the ‘Turing test’ to user-facing artificial intelligence systems in healthcare. In this paper I argue that many medical decisions require value judgements and the doctor-patient relationship requires empathy and understanding to arrive at a shared decision, often handling large areas of uncertainty and balancing competing risks. Arguably, medicine requires wisdom more than intelligence, artificial or otherwise. Artificial intelligence therefore needs to supplement rather than replace medical professionals and identifying the complementary positioning of artificial intelligence in medical consultation is a key challenge for the future. In healthcare, artificial intelligence needs to pass the implementation game, not the imitation game.</p> </sec>