Welcome to our monthly book review, where we'll introduce you to our favourite books and the lessons contained to instil new ideas and help you maintain a growth mindset.
This month we'll be diving into "The AI Revolution in Medicine," by Peter Lee, Casey Goldberg, and Isaac Kohane.
The AI Revolution in Medicine
A Summary:
If you only read one review that I put out this year, this is it.
ChatGPT is simultaneously “both smarter and dumber than any person you've ever met.” It will have what they call hallucinations - essentially, every once in a while it will spit out the wrong answer. And it will do so in confident language.
The errors are few and far between but you will need to learn how to navigate and integrate AI into your professional (and personal) life. We will do a variation of this through this month's review of “The AI Revolution in Medicine."
Seth Godin has said, “The impact of AI is vastly underrated.”
I’m challenging every team I’m working with to ask how they could incorporate AI into their day-to-day. I like Reid Hoffman’s transition from Artificial Intelligence to Amplified Intelligence.
AI will not take over your business (although there are a few businesses being run by AI CEOs now).
But I can guarantee the leaders who do not use AI will be replaced by those who do.
So why am I reviewing a book on Medicine and AI?
It is the single most risk-averse field. It takes on average 17 years for a best practice to become common practice. Skepticism is high. And for good reason: Lives are literally at stake.
If we can use AI in medicine in a responsible way to increase understanding, cut down on the endless paperwork, and increase the quality of care…
Then we can use it in any field.
And so, when I say “The AI Revolution in Medicine,” written by Peter Lee (VP of Corporate Research at Microsoft (Open AI)), Casey Goldberg (a celebrated medical journalist), and Isaac “Zak” Kohane (the Chair of the Medical School of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard) is the most important book I’ve read on the subject so far, it is because it crosses the chasm from theory to utility.
And it clearly articulates the risk and the reward. The promises and the frustrations. The ethics, the regulations we need to contend with, and the guidelines that would allow us to benefit. They clearly present a case for what we can use today without harm. And what we hope we will be able to do in the future. And all without losing sight of the risks and limitations.
But more important, as you read through this book, are the very real ways it can translate to your business and your life.
A summary of the table of contents is a great way to see the breadth of what the book covers: Trust but Verify, The Ultimate Paperwork Shredder, Smarter Science, Safety First… Yes, the book will open you up to new ways you can think about understanding your own health. And for the everyday Joe, AI is a game changer for helping us contend with medical literacy. This is one of the first and obvious benefits of AI - Contend with industry jargon and get to a layperson’s understanding. But it also delves into how AI can be used to dive deeply into literature when you don’t have time, reduce paperwork, increase safety, and act as a guide. Instead of just summarizing every part of the book, I’m going to leave you with three takeaways and three integrations.
My Top Three Takeaways:
1. It is the world's most powerful co-pilot. Treat it as such.
2. It is not just an advanced search. It is built for conversations. It is a great way to interact with some of the most advanced knowledge in any field. And explain it to me as if I was in the 6th grade. With the caveat of course that you must always remain skeptical of the answer in spite of confident prose.
3. It is better at the creative process and the mundane paperwork than we are as humans. The latter is intuitively obvious. It is doing a better job of the mundane than we do - It can flesh out a letter designed for a specific audience (like insurance), fill out forms, and take care of paperwork much faster than any person can. But it is also more powerful at ideation.
A study out of the University of Montana suggests that ChatGPT-4 performed in the top 1% of human thinkers for creativity and originality.
3 Ways I'm Currently Integrating the Lessons:
1. AI Assistant - AI Verification. The most powerful way to overcome the “hallucinations” is to take the conclusions from one chat and simply open up a new chat and ask for feedback on the response AI gave you. Just like asking two different people for feedback, it will critique the answer AI previously gave you. This is great for fleshing out conclusions. AI is not perfect. But the answers are better than most and more readily available.
Here is where I think we need to be careful - we tend to dismiss machines when they make a single mistake but we are tolerant of humans and their mistakes. Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist highlighted this odd reality in his work.
2. Use AI as a Coach. Skill acquisition is about deliberate repetition, with consistent feedback, on the edges of your abilities. The challenge is that hearing critique from your parents, your boss, your colleagues can challenge the ego and elicit a number of negative emotions (even if we don’t want it to).
Working with a non-sentient coach decreases friction, increases psychological safety, and could speed up skill acquisition...
In one example, they uploaded a recording of a patient interaction to ChatGPT and asked for feedback. It was remarkable the type of in-depth observations ChatGPT made, especially around empathy and clarity.
How could you use AI as a coach? I have started Fireflies.ai to get real-time feedback on tone, words per minute, and who’s speaking more than who. I then feed that transcript into ChatGPT for feedback on my performance in the call (I always preface the prompt with the hat I’m wearing - Coach? Salesperson? Facilitator? Advisor?). The increase in the reflection loop has been an absolute game-changer to cut through the noise and give me real-time feedback quickly in a way I can adjust.
3. Prompting is Critical. To get the most out of AI, you’ll need to learn the art and science of prompting. I’m taking a course right now on how to ask AI better questions.
Gary Vaynerchuk said “If you are not using AI tools every day of your life, you’re making a mistake. You’ve got to start training.”
No matter where you stand on the integration of non-sentient “beings” into your personal life - It’s coming. What are you doing to add it to the way you lead, work, and live?
The Racki & Symes Podcast: AI Unleashed - How Modern CEOs Are Transforming Business
Matt shares insights on the potential pitfalls of AI reliance, the significance of verifying AI outputs, and how AI is redefining productivity across industries. Whether you're a CEO looking to enhance your company's capabilities or just curious about the future of AI in the workplace, this episode is packed with actionable insights and forward-thinking perspectives. Dive in to explore the real and potential impact of AI on daily operations and the broader business landscape.
