Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling said although artificial intelligence has the potential to enhance healthcare delivery, he fears there could come a day where the technology could outsmart the human brain, Politico reported July 20.
"The big issue for me long term is what happens if the machines become smarter than the human brain? That, I think, is something that we have to be careful of," Mr. Dowling told Politico.
The CEO of the New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based health system said AI has wonderful potential benefits like analyzing large amounts of data, including historic data.
He said AI can "look for trends, analyze what the data tells you, and then be able to predict what you should or shouldn't be doing with a patient," but advises the healthcare industry to be careful that it doesn't become too dependent on it.
"We have to be careful to make sure that we don't become so dependent upon very, very smart technology when we don't fully understand what it actually can do," he said.