The smart money is on artificial intelligence being used within clinical settings as a digital caregiver, some experts believe.
One startup, Hippocratic AI gave demonstrations last week for “AI healthcare agents” who can appear on a user’s smartphone or laptop, according to a recent report in Wired.
Hippocratic partnered with NVIDIA, an AI developer, to create a digital product that would include an “empathy inference” component to connect with users, the companies announced last week.
While seniors are moving away from broad skepticism about AI, one consistent concern in surveys is that many draw a line between using chatbots and informational technology, versus having AI caregivers replace nurses and human interactions.
Somewhat ominously, the Wired story suggests that tech executives believe it’s a choice seniors, or anyone, won’t be able to make, considering staffing shortages within healthcare settings, a problem that only figures to get worse in the coming years.
Hippocratic AI’s digital caregivers are designed with user concerns in mind, as the technology is meant to mimic human interaction as best as possible, executives said.
“Voice-based digital agents powered by generative AI can usher in an age of abundance in healthcare, but only if the technology responds to patients as a human would,” Kimberly Powell, vice president of Healthcare at NVIDIA, said in a statement. “This type of engagement will require continued innovation and close collaboration with companies, such as Hippocratic AI, developing cutting-edge solutions.”
Hippocratic AI, which announced a new $50 million round of funding last week, described its newly released tool as a “low-risk, non-diagnostic, patient facing service” intended to address the need for more nurses, human or digital.
In addition to concerns about how AI will be used for their healthcare, seniors are also very wary of AI’s relationship to cyber scams, according to a recent survey by AARP.
