On the Prospects for a (Deep) Learning Health Care System

In 1976, Maxmen1 predicted that artificial intelligence (AI) in the 21st century would usher in “the postphysician era,” with health care provided by paramedics and computers. Today, the mass extinction of physicians remains unlikely. However, as outlined by Hinton2 in a related Viewpoint, the emergence of a radically different approach to AI, called deep learning, has the potential to effect major changes in clinical medicine and health care delivery. This Viewpoint reviews some of the factors driving wide adoption of deep learning and other forms of machine learning in the health ecosystem.

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