ChatGPT has passed the gold-standard exam required to practice medicine in the US - amid rising concerns AI could put white-collar workers out of jobs. The artificial intelligence program scored between 52.4 and 75 percent across the three-part Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). Each year's passing threshold is around 60 percent. Researchers from tech company AnsibleHealth who did the study said: 'Reaching the passing score for this notoriously difficult expert exam, and doing so without any human reinforcement, marks a notable milestone in clinical AI maturation.' The full findings, which were made available as a preprint a few weeks ago, have now been peer-reviewed and published in the journal PLOS Digital Health.

Two artificial intelligence (AI) programs -- including ChatGPT -- have passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), according to two recent papers. The papers highlighted different approaches to using large language models to take the USMLE, which is comprised of three exams: Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) search tool that mimics long-form writing based on prompts from human users. It was developed by OpenAI, and became popular after several social media posts showed potential uses for the tool in clinical practice, often with mixed results. The first paper, published on medRxiv in December, investigated ChatGPT's performance on the USMLE without any special training or reinforcement prior to the exams. According to Victor Tseng, MD, of Ansible Health in Mountain View, California, and colleagues, the results showed "new and surprising evidence" that this AI tool was up to the challenge.

Local newspaper China Daily notes that this is all part of the country's push for more AI integration in a number of industries, including healthcare and consumer electronics. China is already a leading contender on the global AI stage, surpassing the United States in AI research, in an ultimate effort to become a frontrunner in AI development by 2030. The country's determination, driven by the realization that AI is the new battleground for international development, could put the U.S. behind China in this worldwide AI race.

Experts generally agree that, before we might consider artificial intelligence (AI) to be truly intelligent --that is, on a level on par with human cognition-- AI agents have to pass a number of tests. And while this is still a work in progress, AIs have been busy passing other kinds of tests. Xiaoyi, an AI-powered robot in China, for example, has recently taken the national medical licensing examination and passed, making it the first robot to have done so. Not only did the robot pass the exam, it actually got a score of 456 points, which is 96 points above the required marks. This robot, developed by leading Chinese AI company iFlytek Co., Ltd., has been designed to capture and analyze patient information.

The first time round in a practice run, Xiaoyi barely scored 100 out of a possible 600 points in China's medical licensing exam. It was a disappointing result – the pass mark is 360 – but Xiaoyi then knuckled down, absorbing the contents of dozens of medical textbooks, 2 million medical records, and 400,000 articles to develop the kind of reasoning needed to be a doctor, The Beijing News reported on the weekend. Xiaoyi took the real test in August and, according to the results released earlier this month, romped it in with a score of 456. In doing so, Xiaoyi, meaning "Little Doctor", became the first artificial intelligence robot to pass the exam, taking a fraction of the allowed time to complete the test, according to iFlyTek which developed the machine with Tsinghua University. Wu Ji, deputy director of Tsinghua's electrical engineering department, said the robot could not rely on rote learning to get through the exam.