Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> I hope at some point AI will replace most diagnostics and doctors that are not up to date.

That's a valid hope, but not a very realistic one just yet. The error rates are just too high. Medicine is messy and complex. Yes, doctors get it wrong every now and then. But AI gets it wrong far more frequently, still. It can be used as a tool in the arsenal of the medical professional, but we are very far away from self-service diagnosis for complex stuff.

> I also hope it will completely kill US pharmacy conglomerate.

That is mostly based on molecules and patents, not so much on diagnostics, that's a different group of companies.

> AI was trained on public domain knowledge. All things we get from it should be free and available everywhere.

Not necessarily, but for the cases where it is I agree that the models should be free and open.

> I can only hope.

Yes. I've seen some very noble efforts strand on lack of capital and every time that happens I realize that not everything is as simple as I would like it to be. I've just financed a - small - factory for something that I consider both useful and urgent, but my means are limited and it was clear that I had no profit motive (which actually means my money went a lot further than if I had had a profit motive).

Once you get into medical education or diagnostics the amounts usually run into the millions if you want to really move the needle. No single individual is going to put that out there on their own dime unless they were very wealthy to begin with. I've invested in a couple of companies like that. They all failed, predictably, because raising follow on investments for such stuff is very hard, even if you can get it to work in principle.

The best example of stuff like that that did work is how the artificial pancreas movement is pushed forward hard by people hacking sensors and insulin pumps. They have forced industry to wake up and smell the coffee: if they weren't going to be the ones to offer it then someone else inevitably would. Even so it is a hard problem to solve properly. But it is getting there:

https://rorycellanjones.substack.com/p/wearenotwaiting-the-p...



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: