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Comment Re: Major privacy concerns (Score 1) 76

Well, yes and no. There's a difference between asking a model to build an entire logic chain and provide external references, and asking one to record and summarize a provided list of symptoms and an atomic discussion. An AI as scribe and cataloger is pretty safe usage. They aren't going to diagnose or prescribe. What they will do is make a complete, searchable record of a visit trivial to accomplish. A doctor using tools like that will be a better doctor for it.

Comment Re: Major privacy concerns (Score 1) 76

I get your point. And I agree about insurers and such. That's the downstream abuse I wholeheartedly despise.

I just think that note taking is the easiest win for AI usage. If you have a regular doctor, a trail of complete, relatively unbiased notes can be invaluable. , especially for catching unusual issues. But the logistics of modern medicine don't leave time for that benefit to be realized.

Ever try feeding a meeting transcript into an LLM, and asking for "meeting notes and a summary of three major themes"? They're pretty amazing.

Comment Re:Major privacy concerns (Score 1) 76

So do you wave the "spooky" flag in front of the patient for the yes/no? Or do you sit down and do a real pro/con with them? I don't mean to belittle your point, but what exactly do you want to have happen here? The escape of medical information is truly well under way already, independent of AI.

There's strong evidence these models already achieve equivalent or better diagnostic accuracy rates than GPs. That is objectively a good thing. And they will get better, given enough statistical data. Stopping the process by denying the technology to prevent downstream data misuse is a misapplication of resources. Baby, bath water. Target the misuse.

Comment Re:"Risks of clinical errors" (Score 2) 76

Well, that's why I used the term "mostly get it right". The bell curve applies here like it does almost everywhere. That vast majority of encounters are unremarkable, some few are stellar, some few are atrocious. This goes especially true for ER encounters, where time is limited and precious, and snap decisions are the only way the system can function at all.

Extended further out, over the collected experiences of single lifetimes, some few will encounter unreasonable numbers of shitty ones. Sucks to be in that last bucket, but probability is a beast.

I think there are good reasons for litigation, but they mostly involve actual intentional malfeasance. Surgery while drunk or high... pushing opioids while taking kickbacks... but things like not ordering expensive tests to catch a 5% outlier root cause should not be among them. Medicine is a statistics game.

Comment "Risks of clinical errors" (Score 4, Informative) 76

Look, I'm a big believer in the value of doctors. Doctors make mistakes. I accept that, and believe that it's a price that must be paid. I had a shoddy diagnosis in my past, the price of which I pay to this day, but I forgave and forgot. And I still trust that doctors mostly get it right.

But when it comes to those mundane, clerical tasks, I say yes, let the AI do it. They're perfectly capable. Doctor's handwritten summaries are an incomplete hodgepodge of scraps, mostly selected during a Q&A based on what they think might be relevant because it supports a half formed diagnosis they already have in mind. I know they try to mitigate that bias, but as we cram more people into shorter slots, something has to give.

As for diagnosis, I think the emerging model in radiology is awesome. Let the AI do a lot of it, but put a radiologist at the crux.

As the population ages, and the ratio to doctors widens, we'll have to do some things to increase throughput. This is one of those things.

But we have to get it through our thick fucking skulls that a 90% chance of success isn't a sure thing, and being in the 10% that fails isn't a reason for litigation, even if AI takes the notes.

Comment Re:My honda does that now (Score 1) 250

I see the point now, it "took" (pretty much past tense) about 30 years.

I do remember when it came out, and when a work friend got one in the early 2000s. It seemed so freaky. Everybody was like, 'Toyota loses money on every one!' 'You're going to be crying when the battery wears out!' 'It'll break down twice as much as a normal car because it has 2 drivetrains!'

Comment Is 50 that hard? (Score 1) 250

My 2019 Toyota Camry gas hybrid gets about 47 mpg (5L/100km) at over 200 hp. Got it new, and I haven't had a single issue.

Granted, it's not a cheap car... but these days it's definitely below average.

I don't think it's fuel economy that's keeping cars pricey, and I doubt relaxing standards will make the cars cheaper. It's in the manufacturers interests to keep those prices up. If it isn't the engine it'll be something else.

Comment Re:Finally (Score 1) 106

I had 64Gb in my last laptop and 24Gb in the laptop before that. That's over 10 years of laptops.

Not once have I ever "run out of RAM".

People talk utter shit about this kind of thing. Sure, it's STUPENDOUS resources compared to my 48K ZX Spectrum had, and I have a screenshot of an "about:blank" tab taking up 24Mb just for the tab alone.

But it's really not that affecting of anyone using a computer, even a power user.

And it still pisses me off that people still sell 8Gb machines in this day and age. Ridiculous. I had THREE TIMES THAT over 10 years ago, and that only because it was the literal motherboard limit.

Buy sensible fucking amounts of RAM, and then you don't care if Chrome takes up 10Gb, it really won't matter at all.

(All numbers in bytes, because the other stuff is a bollocks measurement)

Comment Re:My honda does that now (Score 1) 250

one of Toyota's executives said that every model would be offered as a hybrid in about a decade. That might happen after three decades.

Really? The only ones available without a hybrid option that I can see are the GR 86 rwd coupe and the GR Supra.

We could include the GR Corolla and Hatchback Corolla if you don't consider them "Corollas."

Comment Some options I put together in 2010 (Score 1) 77

https://pdfernhout.net/beyond-...
"This article explores the issue of a "Jobless Recovery" mainly from a heterodox economic perspective. It emphasizes the implications of ideas by Marshall Brain and others that improvements in robotics, automation, design, and voluntary social networks are fundamentally changing the structure of the economic landscape. It outlines towards the end four major alternatives to mainstream economic practice (a basic income, a gift economy, stronger local subsistence economies, and resource-based planning). These alternatives could be used in combination to address what, even as far back as 1964, has been described as a breaking "income-through-jobs link". This link between jobs and income is breaking because of the declining value of most paid human labor relative to capital investments in automation and better design. Or, as is now the case, the value of paid human labor like at some newspapers or universities is also declining relative to the output of voluntary social networks such as for digital content production (like represented by this document). It is suggested that we will need to fundamentally reevaluate our economic theories and practices to adjust to these new realities emerging from exponential trends in technology and society."

Comment Re:The old auto makers are fucked. (Score 4, Insightful) 250

But I was told the opposite:

"We were ahead of them by a mile, by 10 miles, on the internal combustion engine. They went into EVs, and then they convinced the Western world to go into EVs and play their game," the freshman Republican lawmaker from Ohio said during an auto industry conference. "That was just irrational, dumb policy."...

"I pushed back on the premise that EV somehow is about innovation," he said. "Electric vehicles were around in 1910. It's not like this is new technology."

Here's a guy working hard to ensure the US not only loses the global competition for auto production, but becomes the last bastion of tailpipe emissions.

Comment Re: Serious question (Score 1) 157

There is no income limit for the parents who claim these but there are restrictions on what it can be withdrawn for. Those restrictionsâ"education, starting a business, etc.â"coupled with how this will be claimed, means that it will mostly be used by the wealthy.

This is literally welfare for rich people.

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