According to Dr. Dhruv Khullar<\/a>, a physician at Weill Cornell Medicine and writer at the New Yorker, that optimism is well-founded.<\/p>\n Khullar uses AI tools in his own practice as a physician and writes about their advancements in the medical field. He says that \u201cright now, at least, there\u2019s a generally optimistic view of how AI will change healthcare going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n AI in medicine is nothing new. In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to researchers who developed an AI model that enabled breakthroughs in predicting protein\u2019s complex structures. As it becomes more ubiquitous, it\u2019s also emerging as a resource for doctors to get second opinions and as a tool to take notes on patient-doctor interactions.<\/p>\n On top of that, Khullar says, it might help unlock new medicines to treat diseases.<\/p>\n Khullar joined Today, Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram to discuss the ways that AI is transforming drug discovery and research, as well as what it still can\u2019t do. They also discuss how to think about AI\u2019s potential in healthcare at the same time as top AI researchers are increasingly warning about the technology\u2019s risk.<\/p>\n Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There\u2019s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Pandora<\/a>, and Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve been thinking about lifesaving AI innovation. Has AI already started saving lives?<\/p>\n I think it has. This is the fastest I\u2019ve ever seen healthcare take up a new technology. Part of that might be that the healthcare system is so messed up that there\u2019s an appetite for some type of change. It\u2019s unaffordable, it\u2019s inaccessible, it\u2019s inconvenient, the quality is uneven.<\/p>\n There\u2019s at least a hope that AI is going to help with all of these things, and I think it\u2019s already starting to make its way into the healthcare system. Now it\u2019s our responsibility to figure out how to make the most of it without also promulgating some of the downsides.<\/p>\n For those who are unaware, tell us how it\u2019s working its way into the system.<\/p>\n It\u2019s helpful to categorize it into a few buckets, at least for healthcare.<\/p>\n The most rapid uptake, and I think the place that it\u2019s already starting to make a difference, is on the administrative side. Many people who have gone to a doctor recently might have noticed that there\u2019s an AI scribe that\u2019s taking notes now. And people seem to really like it, at least so far. Doctors are able to look their patients in the eye in the way that they weren\u2019t able to when they were poring over their computers and just typing what the patient was telling them.<\/p>\n The second big area is patient navigation. When is your next scan? When\u2019s your next appointment? Do I need to take this medication on an empty stomach or not? There\u2019s a huge opportunity for people, let\u2019s say, who are diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer or heart failure to navigate the system more seamlessly.<\/p>\n The third big area that I\u2019m really excited about is drug discovery. AI is making a huge dent in the early parts of drug discovery.<\/p>\n The last thing that I\u2019m excited about and that I use every day when I\u2019m in the hospital is [AI] as a second opinion. Now instead of having to get a consult or turn to a textbook, AI can be a very, very helpful clinical decision support. It\u2019s not to say that I never consult someone, of course, but that first pass \u2014 I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s going on. What are some recent trials that might influence my decision here? Is there something I\u2019m missing? Is there a test that I should be ordering that I\u2019m not ordering? \u2014 all those types of things, they start to help with.<\/p>\n The biggest chunk of this positive view of AI and medicine is drug discovery. Tell me more about how that\u2019s going so far and how it might be going in a year, or five, or 10.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to leave this conversation and say that we\u2019ve solved the cure for cancer because of AI, but I do want people to know that at least for the early stages of drug discovery \u2014 figuring out the very basic steps of is this an interesting molecule? Does it have potential biological applications? \u2014 AI is already very helpful for that.<\/p>\n They\u2019re trying to take, basically, what is an infinite number of drug-like molecules that are theoretically possible to be drugs and they\u2019re trying to match that to some disease that\u2019s going on inside a human. And human biology is incredibly complex as well. There\u2019s tens of thousands of genes, hundreds of thousands of proteins, trillions of cells, and you have to match a potential molecule to a potential target within a human.<\/p>\n In the past, a researcher might take years to study a disease or a biological pathway and figure out, okay, this protein seems to be involved. And actually, it might not be involved, it might be involved, it might be disrupted, but not be the causative agent. There\u2019s a lot of uncertainty there, so now AI can take enormous amounts of data, and it can rank various potential targets that seem to be the most likely to be causing a particular disease and give you that short short list of potential targets that may have taken months or years in the past.<\/p>\n So now you know what to attack, but you have to figure out what to attack it with. So you need a molecule, you need to generate a molecule that\u2019s going to fit into that target or disrupt that target in some way.<\/p>\n Now again, AI can scour vast chemical spaces and give you a list of the things that seem to be most likely to be able to disrupt that target. And then it can actually help you generate that molecule in some cases.<\/p>\n So now we have the target. Now we have something that we\u2019re going to attack the target with. And then you have to do something called lead optimization, and that\u2019s the third thing. Lead optimization means you have this lead and you have to optimize it.<\/p>\n \u201cI would make the counterargument that healthcare is ripe for disruption and you don\u2019t even need the frontier frontier models to make it a lot better with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Now we have to figure out, of all the molecules that seem to be good at potentially affecting this target, which ones are able to be absorbed in the body, which ones are going to get to the right tissue. AI models can predict the most likely molecule to give you that Goldilocks set of properties that\u2019s needed for a safe and effective drug.<\/p>\n As we all know from anyone who\u2019s asked AI to write an email for them or Googled a question, these tools have a certain degree of certitude, even though these tools can just be flat out wrong about stuff. Are you guys worried about that in the field?<\/p>\n Absolutely. And so this is why I think the narrative around AI just replacing scientists or doctors or other workers is incorrect. Because you still need a lot of judgment.<\/p>\n You need to be able to adjudicate the output of these models to figure out what is most promising and what is potentially dangerous. That is going to require wet labs and scientists and reasoning based on prior experience and understanding the context. There\u2019s all sorts of issues around, can you manufacture some of the drugs that are being proposed by these models? So just because it\u2019s set, it dreams something up doesn\u2019t mean you can actually make that thing in the real world.<\/p>\n Some of the drugs that it proposes might actually be toxic in certain ways that it didn\u2019t predict. And of course, then you have to take this thing into clinical trials. You have to recruit l people who are willing to put this medication in their bodies. You have to find out who might benefit, you have to put it through the regulatory process.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I said that the first part of drug discovery, where you\u2019re trying to figure out how do we get the right drug candidates, what seems most exciting to test further, that\u2019s going to be really accelerated. That whole second half where we actually have to figure out if it works in human biology, that is still going to be in some respects an analog process.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t sound like you\u2019re terribly scared that we are like ceding control of our hospitals, of our research facilities, to AI. This is very much in the sort of assistant bucket?<\/p>\n For now it is. And I think one of the challenges is to maintain our agency as these models become more and more sophisticated. As you lean more on these machines, if you\u2019re a doctor, inevitably some of the skills, the critical thinking, the reasoning that we put into coming up with the diagnosis that we honed over the course of years, that can start to atrophy.<\/p>\n These are the types of things that we still need to sort through as we\u2019re implementing more and more AI into the healthcare system.<\/p>\n For the people who just say, shut it all down, this is too dangerous, the risk is far too great, we don\u2019t actually need this, this isn\u2019t doing anything for society, would you make a counterargument?<\/p>\n I would make the counterargument that healthcare is ripe for disruption and you don\u2019t even need the frontier frontier models to make it a lot better with AI.<\/p>\n Even if we wanted to \u201cslow the pace of the frontier,\u201d fine. But there are models from a year or two years ago that could be very helpful in the healthcare setting. When we\u2019re talking about slowing the pace of the frontier and the most sophisticated and potentially dangerous models, fine.<\/p>\n But if we\u2019re talking about shutting down AI and not using it in biotechnology or not using it in scientific research or not using it in clinical care delivery, that\u2019s where I would push back pretty hard.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve read 1 article in the last month<\/p>\n Here at Vox, we’re unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you \u2014 threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.<\/p>\n Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.<\/p>\n We rely on readers like you \u2014 join us.<\/p>\n Swati Sharma<\/p>\n Vox Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s one thing that Americans can unite behind, it\u2019s anxieties over artificial intelligence. 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