Public health

Health informatics

eHealth

Test (biology)

Chatbot

Economic growth

Biology

Sociotechnical system

Nursing

Paleontology

Artificial intelligence

Applications of artificial intelligence

Psychology

Health care

Economics

Programming language

Empathy

Computer science

Turing test

Medicine

Social psychology

Turing

Journal of Medical Internet Research

Over the next decade, one issue which will dominate sociotechnical studies in health informatics is the extent to which the promise of artificial intelligence in health care will be realized, along with the social and ethical issues which accompany it. A useful thought experiment is the application of the Turing test to user-facing artificial intelligence systems in health care (such as chatbots or conversational agents). In this paper I argue that many medical decisions require value judgements and the doctor-patient relationship requires empathy and understanding to arrive at a shared decision, often handling large areas of uncertainty and balancing competing risks. Arguably, medicine requires wisdom more than intelligence, artificial or otherwise. Artificial intelligence therefore needs to supplement rather than replace medical professionals, and identifying the complementary positioning of artificial intelligence in medical consultation is a key challenge for the future. In health care, artificial intelligence needs to pass the implementation game, not the imitation game.

Trust Me, I’m a Chatbot: How Artificial Intelligence in Health Care Fails the Turing Test