Empathy, data and machine learning: the promise and limits of AI in healthcare

Dr Bayju Thakar is a former NHS doctor and founder of the digital health company Doctor Care Anywhere, who writes about the role of AI in digital health. Whether wide-eyed forecasts that it'll replace human clinicians in the foreseeable future, or alarm bells suggesting it's a danger to public health, AI's barely out of the news. I'm certainly reluctant to see chatbots as a viable alternative to clinician care – on which more below – but I'd rather we didn't make a bogeyman from these technologies either. I think a dose of patience is needed here – we mustn't rush into adoption of such revolutionary tech, but equally let's not scare ourselves witless over what it can do. I see AI as rather like a child prodigy.