How algorithms could bring empathy back to medicine

'Empathy robot' Reeti, made in France for use in health care. In a new book, Eric Topol wants to see medics themselves freed to provide compassion to patients.Credit: BSIP/UIG via Getty So much has been written about artificial intelligence (AI) that any new book on it can struggle to create a signal amid the noise. There are volumes hyping AI as the fourth industrial revolution, others decrying it as the greatest threat to modern society and many calling for AI to become less artificial and more intelligent. Now, Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, adds his voice. Deep Medicine summarizes hype and threat, then takes us to a place where no one else has gone: a future in which AI helps to re-establish empathy and trust between doctors and patients.