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A Psychologist's Thoughts on Clinical Practice, Behavior, and Life

Artificial Intelligence Won't Make Teachers And Doctors Extinct!

Despite the recent fervent statements of computer luminaries that teachers and doctors will become extinct because of artificial intelligence, I don't see this happening. But first a story.

 

Fifty years ago, in one of New York City's worst school districts, a newly minted science teacher stood before his class for the first time, viewing his teenage students create bedlam by throwing things and screaming. During this uproar, a boy grabbed a girl's large doll and pretended to have sex with it, causing screams of what was happening using graphic language of course. Meanwhile, their teacher silently watched. After the boy said, "Well, it beats a dog," the teacher spoke for the first time. "It sounds like you tried both and know which you prefer." The entire class instantly shut up and, thereafter, the students got along great with the teacher with the smarter ones being helped with their homework while lunching in the lab, with more students passing the state exam than ever before in that school.

 

Regarding the medical profession: a recent study found that artificial intelligence was far more accurate in diagnosing a patient's illness then the doctor with the artificial intelligence having an above ninety percent accuracy rating while the physicians' rating was in the upper sixties. Which may force positive change in the medical profession with doctors spending more time advising patients about healthy life practices than treating the results of their poor choices.

 

My point is that while artificial intelligence is capable of certain tasks, it will never provide the human element which is critical in the teaching and medical professions. Moreover, audio-video instruction is only effective with children when adult participation is present. Hopefully, poor teachers and doctors will become extinct but the sensitive skillful ones will remain.

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