There exists online and offline ML.

Transcription is not a task that needs a full blown LLM, summarization probably does, and if being done offline or on a server with trusted verifiable lack of logging should be fine. That does not mean send it to ChatGPT API.

I would hope they store the raw conversation file encrypted with patient records so they can retranscribe later as tools improve.

It needs to be a system and a contractual framework that complies with the medical privacy regulations of the place where it’s being used (in the US, HIPAA). I have some doubts about whether specific companies or people will actually comply, or the enforcement of those laws by certain governmental authorities, but I don’t think it’s conceptually impossible to have this kind of tech be compliant with those types of regulations.

Medical AI has guardrails out the wazoo. By the time it’s made available to a physician, it’s probably been reviewed by a council, vetted by IT, and negotiated heavily by Legal. If the data leaves the premises, it’ll be thoroughly protected and isolated.

That said, fuck AI. I’d give up medical transcription to get the environment, economy, and sanity back. Musk’s data center is running dozens of natural gas turbines in a low-income, primarily Black neighborhood 11 miles down the road from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. It’s positively ghoulish.

Clue: Medical transcription has been done for the past 20 years. Source: sister in law was a medical transcriptionist making $80K per year, until Dragon Naturally Speaking and friends decimated her job market.

Horseshit. Medical AI is using Oracle services. Larry mother fucking Elison is storing and processing this data.

The medical industry seems so ignorant about this. They think the argument is just about AI. It’s also about the fact that I don’t trust the people you’re partnered with.

I get so pissed when the AI consent is baked into other paperwork with no opt out. I will leave.

Edit: www.oracle.com/customers/beacon-health/

Edit: they might not all be, but I’m not authorizing your arbitrary “AI use” clause. You might as well be, now or at some point down the road.

The agreement is only as good as the hospital’s vetting, so I may be a little optimistic after seeing a very thorough and protracted process on my side. If you work for a healthcare system that’s okay with Beacon and Oracle, then it may be time to evaluate whether they’re a good healthcare system to work for.

One Rich Asshole Called Larry Elison