As a reader of The Leverage, I’m probably a bit of an outlier—I’m a pediatrician and public health doctor. I’m really happy everything turned out okay with your daughter. Febrile seizures are terrifying to witness as a parent, and I’m so glad Claude gave you enough grounding to engage meaningfully with your care team. Nice shout-out to the good people of Boston Children's too!
To your point about where this crazy ride should take us, public health is exactly the kind of challenge these tools should be built for. The sheer volume of data we have to parse to figure out where limited resources should go is dizzying, and the answer often looks very different from one jurisdiction to the next. It’s a monstrous task for our epidemiology teams. And yet adoption lags, partly because of funding constraints, partly because of legitimate confidentiality concerns. Mostly though, the tools that could meaningfully help us protect and improve the public’s health just don't seem to be getting built.
To your closing point, the opportunity we have to create tools to improve lives and reduce suffering is monumental. I hope those who are leading in this area hear your call to action.
Thanks Christopher. I think OpenEvidence is a great example of LLMs being used to materially improve health outcomes, I hope there will be many more in the years to come.
First I'm so glad that everything turned out fine with your daughter.
I also found myself consulting with Claude when a close family member suffered a stroke while on holiday in a non English speaking country. I found it so helpful to understand what medications were being prescribed to her and what tests they were doing on her, when the doctors and nurses could only gesture at me because of the language barrier.
Even after we returned home, having Claude around helped me understand all the medical treatments and gave me assurance that the doctors were doing the right things based on research.
It's amazingly powerful and I can only hope that it continues to remain more helpful than detrimental to human society.
Wow, I'm so glad everything is OK with your daughter!
AI is definitely an already-powerful tool for de-stressing some major life event/decision situations. I recently had to buy a new car after a car accident (I'm OK too) and being able to have AI both research comps for my lost vehicle (to support my insurance settlement value) *and* help me find the best, no-low mark-up dealers with inventory to talk to was a huge weight off me at a time that was already inherently stressful. I was able to find and buy a car and make what I think is ultimately a rational, well-supported $50k decision (backed-up by a decent insurance pay-out for my previous car) within a few days. Whereas before I would probably have been somewhat paralyzed by the magnitude of the dollar values involved, much less the time and stress of calling a dozen dealers (which I had to do last time I bought a car), comparing their offers, etc.
AI helped me understand what I could afford, where I'd get the best deal, how to get the most for my totaled vehicle, and what offers from the dealer were actually worthwhile (e.g. Toyota Care upgrades, maintenance plans, etc.). It turned an overwhelming combination of stresses into a tractable set of decisions that could be made at least semi-rationally.
I'm hopeful that these kinds of positive, life-supporting experiences of AI are just the tip of a positive iceberg. I'm glad you are hoping for the same, and writing to the world that is aiming for that, while tracking the world as it is. Events like you experienced can be very clarifying on what really matters and what the world should really prioritize!
The transactional and monetization mindset continues to splinter society beyond imagination. CPG has gifted that concept to the tourism industry, which continues developing more elaborate ala carte menus to multiply its profit centers. Grateful to be in a place where I can make a difference for a community and position it from emotive perspective. Create a magnet and people will go out of their way to be close to you. (Really enjoy your perspective, thank you.)
As a reader of The Leverage, I’m probably a bit of an outlier—I’m a pediatrician and public health doctor. I’m really happy everything turned out okay with your daughter. Febrile seizures are terrifying to witness as a parent, and I’m so glad Claude gave you enough grounding to engage meaningfully with your care team. Nice shout-out to the good people of Boston Children's too!
To your point about where this crazy ride should take us, public health is exactly the kind of challenge these tools should be built for. The sheer volume of data we have to parse to figure out where limited resources should go is dizzying, and the answer often looks very different from one jurisdiction to the next. It’s a monstrous task for our epidemiology teams. And yet adoption lags, partly because of funding constraints, partly because of legitimate confidentiality concerns. Mostly though, the tools that could meaningfully help us protect and improve the public’s health just don't seem to be getting built.
To your closing point, the opportunity we have to create tools to improve lives and reduce suffering is monumental. I hope those who are leading in this area hear your call to action.
Thanks Christopher. I think OpenEvidence is a great example of LLMs being used to materially improve health outcomes, I hope there will be many more in the years to come.
Maybe to simple why your insight does not get any traction; insurance middlemen and follow the money ?
First I'm so glad that everything turned out fine with your daughter.
I also found myself consulting with Claude when a close family member suffered a stroke while on holiday in a non English speaking country. I found it so helpful to understand what medications were being prescribed to her and what tests they were doing on her, when the doctors and nurses could only gesture at me because of the language barrier.
Even after we returned home, having Claude around helped me understand all the medical treatments and gave me assurance that the doctors were doing the right things based on research.
It's amazingly powerful and I can only hope that it continues to remain more helpful than detrimental to human society.
Wow, I'm so glad everything is OK with your daughter!
AI is definitely an already-powerful tool for de-stressing some major life event/decision situations. I recently had to buy a new car after a car accident (I'm OK too) and being able to have AI both research comps for my lost vehicle (to support my insurance settlement value) *and* help me find the best, no-low mark-up dealers with inventory to talk to was a huge weight off me at a time that was already inherently stressful. I was able to find and buy a car and make what I think is ultimately a rational, well-supported $50k decision (backed-up by a decent insurance pay-out for my previous car) within a few days. Whereas before I would probably have been somewhat paralyzed by the magnitude of the dollar values involved, much less the time and stress of calling a dozen dealers (which I had to do last time I bought a car), comparing their offers, etc.
AI helped me understand what I could afford, where I'd get the best deal, how to get the most for my totaled vehicle, and what offers from the dealer were actually worthwhile (e.g. Toyota Care upgrades, maintenance plans, etc.). It turned an overwhelming combination of stresses into a tractable set of decisions that could be made at least semi-rationally.
I'm hopeful that these kinds of positive, life-supporting experiences of AI are just the tip of a positive iceberg. I'm glad you are hoping for the same, and writing to the world that is aiming for that, while tracking the world as it is. Events like you experienced can be very clarifying on what really matters and what the world should really prioritize!
Yep these are there exact situations where I feel so grateful to have access to this tech—genuinely makes my life materially better.
Amen, brother. Thanks for being on the side for making technology actually work for all of us and the world.
The transactional and monetization mindset continues to splinter society beyond imagination. CPG has gifted that concept to the tourism industry, which continues developing more elaborate ala carte menus to multiply its profit centers. Grateful to be in a place where I can make a difference for a community and position it from emotive perspective. Create a magnet and people will go out of their way to be close to you. (Really enjoy your perspective, thank you.)