The other day I talked with a nurse who recently began using an ambient AI system while conducting medical-history interviews. In the past, she had to spend big chunks of her days—and evenings—organizing her hastily typed notes. Now, her AI assistant listens to the conversations and turns them into properly formatted written summaries. That saves her an hour or two each day. Just as important, she says, “I can focus more on my patients, since I’m not constantly typing.”
Compared with the grandiose claims about how AI will remake the world, this might seem like a modest advance. But, if you look carefully, you see that such small, easily overlooked improvements are going on all around us. I think we should celebrate them. Science and technology have improved our lives immeasurably over the past, oh, couple of centuries. But once the benefits of a certain advance become baked in, we take them for granted. We forget how amazing things like antibiotics, or air travel, or smartphones really are. Instead, we focus on problems, setbacks, and risks.
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor.
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