Human Flourishing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence | Eric Horvitz, MD, PhD

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anyone who has interacted with ChatGPT is likely to agree that it is one of the most powerful and transformative artificial intelligence tools out there. Writes our guest on this episode, Microsoft's Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz, MD, PhD, “ChatGPT left me awestruck. It is a polymath with a remarkable capacity to integrate traditionally disparate concepts and methodologies to weave together ideas that transcend disciplinary boundaries.”

Dr. Horvitz is one of the leading voices in artificial intelligence (AI), serving now on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and formerly as President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. His research has been foundational to machine learning, AI integration of multisensory streams of information, computational models in imperfect information systems, and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world. As it happens, Dr. Horvitz is also a physician by training.

Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Horvitz discusses how studying AI has enabled him to explore the mysteries of human intelligence and why there are some domains of the human experience that AI will never capture. As you will hear, he brings an eloquent optimism to articulating the ways that AI will contribute to human flourishing.

In this episode, we discuss:

3:00 - Dr. Horvitz early trajectory from medical school to a PhD in computer science

7:42 - What Dr. Horvitz’s studies in AI have taught him about natural intelligence

10:00 - A primer of generative AI

21:16 - Dr. Horvitz’s view on the future potentials and dangers that AI will bring to society

29:04 - How the profit motive might shape the utilization of AI in our society

36:48 - The importance of approaching AI development from a human-centered lens

47:29 - What human flourishing could look like in a society steeped in artificial intelligence

Dr. Eric Horvitz is the author of numerous publications on artificial intelligence and its role in society.

Dr. Horvitz can be found on Twitter/X at @erichorvitz.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.0	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:05.0	And you're listening to The Doctors Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.0	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.
0:13.2	What makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.1	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build health care institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection.
0:23.0	What can we learn about the human condition
0:24.8	from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions,
0:30.0	we meet with deep thinkers working across health care,
0:33.0	from doctors and nurses to patients and health care
0:35.4	executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.
0:40.1	Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heart-breaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.0	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.8	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us
0:57.1	about some of life's biggest questions.
1:07.7	Regardless of what else one may think of the technology, anyone who has interacted with the chat gPT would agree that it is one of the most powerful and transformative artificial intelligence tools out there.
1:14.2	I remember the first few times I played around with a large language model, astonished by the
1:18.6	fluidity and versatility of its responses, exhilarated by the applications I could immediately foresee in medicine and scientific
1:26.1	exploration, and even slightly unnerved by how well it was doing things that I previously
1:31.7	thought only humans could do, from writing poems to generating
	...

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