Human touch still bigger than AI, say experts

DUBAI: People from the sectors of information communications technology, medical/health/education and government have pointed out that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will not replace the significance and purpose of human resources in the foreseeable future.

They said the missing link in the midst of the escalating progress of technology on AI and the consequent growing anxiety and fear of the future having robots in control that will rule the world is the human touch—the empathy and the concern that only people can give to one another especially at critical moments.

However, they also all agreed that while AI has burgeoned in recent years, because the elements for its development have become “faster, cheaper and powerful,” everyone must maintain an open mind or embracing about the impact of AI on all spheres of life.

In the realm of medical/health/education, they said any doctor who fails to update his knowledge and skills on AI will be left behind.

It is for these reasons that at the UAE’s Gulf Medical University (GMU) part of the curricula of future medical practitioners is the “Virtual Patient Learning” (VPL) AI system which was presented before delegates of the “1st Annual International Conference on the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Medical Education” held in Dubai on Wednesday.

Brainchild

The brainchild was the GMU chancellor Prof. Hossam Hamdy with 50 years of experience as paediatric surgeon and 40 years as an educator, who believes that classroom theories and studies must be complemented with “problem-based learnings.”

With the AI development in recent years, GMU tied up with the Switzerland-based LifeLike, the AI system software provider for the VPL.

From his presentation, Hamdy said: “The challenge is how to get out that humane-ness into the AI system.”

LifeLike chief executive officer Andreas Laus said AI “can help scrutinise the pathology of a disease.”

There is also the reality that “critical conversations consisting of “emotions, high stakes and opinions alongside self-esteem, untold fears, expectations, emotional peaks and trust” rank high and cannot be neglected in whatever circumstances people are in like when a doctor talks to a patient, when managing a company and when caring for a relative.

Hamdy told The Gulf Today that the GMU VPL which has been exported to the US, Poland and Italy principally takes AI as a complementary tool to medical education: “Doctors need improvements on their communication skills.”

Real scenarios

With the GMU VPL, medical students are presented with real patient scenarios—30 so far and the present target is 62 cases—acted out by UK-based actors, not avatars and according to the cases Hamdy has been through to all his 50 years work experience as a medical doctor himself.

The medical students are trained to develop the care and the empathy necessary when they become medical doctors themselves.

As another speaker, PwC partner and Healthcare Services leader Middle East Dr. Tim Wilson, a family doctor by profession, also said: “Men, like the other animals which go in packs like the horses, are social beings.” He cited how being in a choir can be beneficial to any person.

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