Dr Google? AI could be doctor in the pocket, but company's health officer urges caution about its limits

The arrival of artificial intelligence into healthcare means everyone could one day have a doctor in their pocket, but Google's chief health officer has urged caution about what AI can do and what its limits should be. "There's going to be an opportunity for people to have even better access to services [and] to great quality services," Dr Karen DeSalvo told Guardian Australia in an interview last week. "But we're a ways to get there. We have a lot of things to work out to make sure the models are constrained appropriately, that they're factual, consistent, and that they follow these ethical and equity approaches that we want to take – but I'm super excited about the potential even as a doc." DeSalvo, a former Obama administration health official, has headed up Google's health division since 2021, and visited Australia for the first time in her role last week.