AI Eroded Doctors' Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-12/ai-eroded-doctors-ability-to-spot-cancer-within-months-in-study

archive link: https://archive.ph/nVZMY

Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.

AI helped health professionals to better detect pre-cancerous growths in the colon, but when the assistance was removed, their ability to find tumors dropped by about 20% compared with rates before the tool was ever introduced, according to findings published Wednesday.

(snip)

The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, “leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,” the scientists said in the paper.

Yuichi Mori, a researcher at the University of Oslo and one of the scientists involved, predicted that the effects of de-skilling will “probably be higher” as AI becomes more powerful.

[biophile]

1. This has been true for all technology

Students now can’t write cursive because of technology
People can’t make change because of technology
We still need to know the basics in case technology fails, and just like the study noted, our skills will be rusty after relying on technology for so long.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. .

Students now can’t write cursive because of technology

No, but people will still study how to read cursive, which is the skill that is needed -- not writing cursive.

People can’t make change because of technology

As we become an increasingly card-based society, making change is again a skill that isn't needed.

Identifying cancer will always be a skill that is needed.

[cachukis]

3. We are physiologically departing biological evolution.

We are managed by pharmaceuticals and now artificial intelligence. SciFi, not.

[erronis]

5. How good is AI when the electricity goes out? Not as in terminal/nuclear war, but hours/days.

Terminal disconnect from the "mains" will destroy most of humanity - at least in the "civilized" or "developed" world.

Hospitals have power backups for many hours and equipment can keep running. But the "AI" stuff may need to talk to the big data centers over the internet. Lots of potential points of failure including the data centers where the models are stored.