On the heels of rapid expansion of artificial intelligence tools earlier this year, President Biden has made numerous remarks supporting the technology’s potential and outlining the administration’s role in guiding its responsible development.
This stance culminated in a recent meeting between Biden and his Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, during which Biden suggested that an executive order on AI may be forthcoming.
“This fall, I’m going to take executive action, and my administration is going to continue to work with bipartisan legislation,” the president said, “so America leads the way toward responsible AI innovation.”
Speaking on healthcare, Biden stressed the importance of nurses and other caregivers in supporting underserved communities, and of investing in training and support for these roles.
Many recent analyses about how AI can best serve sectors such as senior living and care focus on AI’s ability to conduct rote tasks or automate processes that would save time for caregivers and clinicians, improving their jobs rather than replacing them.
“It’s going to reduce medical errors and other problems patients face when they’re hospitalized,” Biden said of AI. “And I believe it’s going to improve outcomes and protect the people we love.”
Although CMAP’s appraisal of AI generally was glowing, broad skepticism remains about its uses by many clinicians and patients alike.
Although AI has been studied for its ability to diagnose a broad range of conditions, from Parkinson’s to COVID, results have been mixed. Currently, AI shows some capabilities that match or exceed human intelligence, but for many applications in healthcare it produces incorrect or biased results.
Overall this year, the Biden administration has been at odds with nursing home providers, criticizing the way facilities are run and proposing staffing mandates that have drawn industry ire.
Biden’s full remarks from last week’s CMAP meeting can be found on the official White House website.
