When Good Intentions Aren’t Enough: AI, Medicine, and the Risk of Losing What Matters Most
- Feb 18
- 2 min read
Artificial Intelligence is transforming medicine at a breathtaking pace. With nearly 700 FDA-approved AI devices already in clinical use, the promise of greater diagnostic accuracy, improved efficiency, and reduced costs is real and compelling. As physicians, we should embrace tools that improve patient care. But we must also ask a harder question: at what cost?
In a commentary published in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (see attached), I argue that AI’s most significant unintended consequence may be the erosion of the physician-patient relationship — the very soul of medicine.1 This concern is not abstract. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has already declared a national epidemic of loneliness and isolation, and the evidence suggests that increased reliance on technology — even well-intentioned technology — contributes to that isolation.
We have seen this before. The electronic medical record was designed to improve care but in practice pulled physicians’ attention away from their patients and toward their screens. AI risks doing the same, at greater scale and speed.
Some argue that AI can actually improve relationships — AI responses to patient questions have even been rated as more empathetic than those of real physicians. But empathy without authentic human experience is a simulation. When AI says “I am sorry to hear that,” the statement is grammatically correct but fundamentally hollow. Authentic relationship requires two people.
The path forward requires vigilance on two fronts: physicians must intentionally protect human connection in every clinical encounter, treating AI as a tool that frees them to be more present — not less. And AI developers and policymakers must establish binding bioethical principles that prioritize the physician-patient relationship over efficiency and profit.
The road paved with good intentions is still a road that can lead somewhere we do not want to go.