Will AI replace surgeons?

With our ever-evolving technology continuing to advance as time goes on, we’ve seen a significant increase in the development of AI within a whole host of industries, including:

- Cybersecurity
- Financial services
- Advertising
- Healthcare

But could AI really replace our trained surgeons once and for all? In this article, we explore this possibility further.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a specialised strand of computer science that allows smart machines to perform daily tasks that would ordinarily be performed by a human. This requires fixed programming to be implemented in order to instruct the AI controlled robots to carry out the tasks in question.

What are the benefits of AI?

There are a whole host of advantages of the utilisation of AI across a range of sectors. The main benefit is freeing up more resource by no longer requiring staff members to physically perform repetitive tasks that can be handled by AI programming instead. Alongside this, it can save bundles of precious time, meaning workers can spend less time on said tasks, and more time on activities that will directly help to boost the success of business in other ways.

What role can AI play within the world of healthcare?

We’ve already seen a huge increase in the development of AI within our healthcare sector, and scientists are hopeful that this new technology could help to prevent surges in medical negligence claims. AI in medicine allows robotics to carefully review a patients’ medical data in order to inform them of the likes of repeat prescriptions that can be administered. But we’ve also seen recent scenarios where surgeons can use the power of AI to control robots hundreds of miles away to perform surgeries. This advanced technology, known as tele-surgery, recently allowed a London-based surgeon to do a trial remote surgery on a banana in California. Tele-surgery is expected to revolutionise healthcare as we know it.

What are the disadvantages of AI within healthcare?

There is a long-standing debate that is still being discussed to this day as to whether AI is an ethical way to operate within the medical world. The main concern is that just like humans, machines can get it wrong sometimes – one malfunction could cause catastrophic consequences to a patient’s life. The downfall of AI is that due to its intelligence being artificially programmed, it doesn’t possess the ability to make decisions based on human instinct or emotion – which is an arguably essential trait that every surgeon requires.