The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond 1st Edition

In their insightful new book, "The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond", Professors Peter Lee, Carey Goldberg, and Isaac Kohane explore the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. As a practicing cardiologist who has experienced firsthand the integration of GPT-4 into my practice, I found this book a compelling exploration of the promises and limitations of AI in medicine.The potential of GPT-4 is awe-inspiring – its vast, data-driven knowledge base could potentially outshine any board-certified cardiologist. However, as the authors keenly illustrate, this platform is not without its limitations. It can make errors that would be apparent to even medical students, largely due to its lack of real-world clinical experience and understanding of the nuances of clinical context. Medicine is more than the sum of textbook knowledge; it intricately intertwines with human factors such as cultural beliefs, patient priorities, and geographical medical experiences. In this regard, human input remains irreplaceable.The authors emphasize the importance of a symbiotic relationship between human expertise and AI, an observation that resonates with my own experiences. We've found that when human experts and GPT-4 collaborate, clinical effectiveness can increase exponentially. As a cardiologist, I often encounter complex cases with multi-system issues that extend beyond my field of expertise. In such instances, GPT-4's interdisciplinary knowledge becomes an essential resource.A case that comes to mind involved a patient with tamponade presenting with a right lung infiltrate. GPT-4 suggested that the presentation was strongly suggestive of an EGFR+ve adenocarcinoma of the lung. This diagnosis was quickly confirmed, and the patient, now on Tagrisso, is doing well despite a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. This example underscores the power of AI's capability when it collaborates with human expertise.However, the system is not flawless. As of my writing on May 14, 2023, Auto-GPT, an autonomous version of GPT-4, shows limitations in utilizing web search as effectively as experienced human users. Yet, we've discovered that GPT-4's diagnostic and treatment capabilities can be further optimized through special prompting techniques and programming strategies.In conclusion, "The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond" offers a balanced and realistic view of AI's role in healthcare. Despite AI's limitations, the book illuminates how the collaboration between AI and human expertise can revolutionize patient care. As the authors astutely argue, the AI revolution in medicine is about augmenting human capabilities to deliver more effective, personalized care, not replacing us.This book is a must-read for healthcare professionals navigating the evolving landscape of AI in medicine. I would also like to extend a special thanks to OpenAI for providing early access to the GPT-4 API, allowing for the firsthand experiences that inform this review.Paul C. Lee, MDCardiologistBrooklyn, NY

The AI Revolution is an engaging and thought-provoking read, offering insightful examples that highlight the potential of artificial intelligence. The authors eloquently capture the essence of their argument in the middle of the book:"Medicine traditionally refers to a sacred relationship between a doctor and a patient — a twosome, a dyad. "And I'm proposing that now we move to a triad," he said, with an AI entity like GPT-4 as the third leg of that triangle.Today's LLMs are likely to appear elementary in a few years. As impressive as their feats are, as shown in the book, they still have much to demonstrate in order to surpass the expertise of our finest medical professionals indefinitely. Even if they claim to outperform the average practitioner, it is natural for many of us to harbor reservations and doubt their abilities, regardless of the irrationality behind such sentiments. Nevertheless, the book masterfully showcases the incredible potential of integrating GPT as the third agent in the doctor-patient dynamic. From aiding in diagnosis, documentation, and explanations to serving as an error handler, facilitating patient-doctor communication, optimizing planning, and enhancing overall efficiency—the possibilities are vast. Furthermore, the book hints at the future prospects of LLMs as long-term record-keepers and even contributors to drug discovery, further emphasizing their potential value.It is pretty likely that healthcare and pharmaceuticals emerge as generative AI's most significant application sectors over time.

I found this book to be highly informative and well researched, with clear examples of the impact of AI on medicine, particularly focused on Chat GBT. The authors are all top notch--one is the leading research on AI in healthcare from Microsoft, one is a leading bioinformatics expert and physician from Harvard Medical School and the other is one of the best science and healthcare journalists in the country.Very refreshing to see a book that keeps the hype factor to a minimum and delivers the goods on actually explaining why this all matters to patients, physicians, and those running healthcare provider organizations.The book provides an unvarnished and pragmatic view of the high impact of AI bots and models on medicine and healthcare, with a particular focus on what this will mean for patients, doctors and the healthcare provider community. The view of AI from the patient's point of view is refreshing, since much of what is written about healthcare technology is usually so much mumbo jumbo about standards, protocols and other IT systems plumbing issues.This book will be very useful to doctors who will need to understand how to use AI as a valued partner and to patients who will need to understand how to use AI to manage their own health and medical literacy. The authors are very clear about the limitations of the existing AI systems and encourage everyone to "trust but verify" which is very good advice.I found the detailed chats in the book to be focused enough to follow and clearly illustrate the main points. Carey Goldberg, the journalist who worked on the book, does a very good job of cutting through the jargon and presenting the information from experts Peter Lee and Zak Kohane in a very clear, easy-to-read and understand fashion.Wish there was a book like this for many other aspects of AI chatbots for use for writing, research, everyday life, etc.Well worth the investment of time and attention to understand how AI will impact medicine and healthcare, which is important for patients, physicians, and policy makers alike.Hope this will be an ongoing series of books as generative AI and the use of artificial intelligences evolved and become increasingly important in our daily lives.

Really interesting book. Quick read.