What Will Never Change?

And in medicine what is our constant?

I struggle with what will make me different in a world of AI. Maybe because I have identified as a writer through much of my career. This article in Radar by tech OG Tim O'Reilly hit the spot. It's the best thing I read all week.

The world is obsessed with the things that AI will change. O'Reilly flips it and asks, what is it that won't change?

He details the work of the early PC pioneers and what they did to define themselves -- Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Andy Grove. Then he references Steve Jobs:

But only one of the personal computer pioneers rooted his company’s business strategy in something that would not change: the human desire to distinguish oneself from peers by the values that you express through your choices. He understood that in commodity markets, brands stand out when they mean something.

It's creativity, values, and taste that will remain a constant in human societies and economies. This is no matter how powerful any machine becomes.

It is the ability to decide what is new and unexpected and to shape what mattersto people that is the heart of creative intelligence, not just in the arts but in business and in politics. At least until AI wakes up in the morning and decides what it is going to do, it will be directed by humans.

For me this is empowering. It gives me the agency that I look for every day as a doctor. And it inspired me to pass it along to you.

As health professionals what is it we do that will never change? Or shouldn't change?