Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• The Federal Trade Commission isn’t messing around. The FTC is prepared to use every tool at its disposal to stop crooks from using AI to hoodwink consumers and businesses. The agency spells out what it means in a comment submitted July 31 to an FCC notice of inquiry anticipating goods and harms to come from emerging uses of AI. The FTC says it will “consistently remind industry that there is no AI exception to consumer protection or antitrust laws. We stand ready to work with the FCC and other agencies—both state and federal—to advance the critical goal” of holding bad AI actors accountable. Context here, comment here.
   
• Pretty close to 100% of business C-suiters expect AI to boost productivity. But there’s a disconnect in the house. More than three-quarters of workers feel the tools are only adding to their workloads. The findings are from a global survey by the staffing firm Upwork, which queried 1,250 executives, 625 salaried fulltime employees and 625 gig workers. The non-leaders told the surveyors they spend considerable time reviewing or moderating AI-generated content (39%), learning how to use these tools (23%) and, crucially, being asked to do more work as a direct result of AI (21%). Results summary here.
   
• The above will sound familiar to healthcare professionals. After all, it’s not news that digitizing health records was supposed to relieve clinicians of administrative duties but has, in fact, done the opposite. Still, some 65% of providers tell eClinicalWorks they believe AI will finally reduce the burden of clinical documentation. What’s more, when asked how much time AI medical scribes can help save, 51% replied two hour or more per day. More results here.
   
• Detailed federal regulation for healthcare AI is on the way. That’s what we keep hearing. But lawmakers at the state level aren’t waiting. As noted by the National Conference of State Legislators, in 2023, 11 states introduced legislation specifically related to healthcare AI. That was a bump from just three states the previous year. And the momentum has carried into 2024. “State legislators can play an important role in harnessing the positive capabilities of AI,” NCSL reminds, “while serving as a safeguard for the public against some of the potential negatives.”
   
• Patients are largely untroubled by the thought of AI helping doctors make diagnoses. Just don’t ask those same healthcare consumers to interact with AI for themselves. The mixed feelings reflect the newness of the AI journey, especially with Gen AI in the news, according to Bain & Company, which is out with findings and analysis from the firm’s latest Frontline of Healthcare survey. “Clinician involvement,” the authors write, “will go a long way in addressing both patients’ and clinicians’ concerns and scaling winning applications.”
   
• Who’s right? In this corner, those who believe AI represents an investment goldmine. In that corner, those who believe AI is overhyped and may be approaching bubble status. Looking on are the professional market watchers of Fisher Investments, who figure the truth lies somewhere near the middle of the mat. “We believe a disciplined approach to investing within AI-related sectors and companies is likely the prudent choice for most investors,” Fisher writes in a July 31 web post, “as the long-term winners in the AI technology race are nearly impossible to know today.”
   
• Here might be the real final countdown. Two “alien-curious” scientists think it would be a good idea to send large language AI models into space. If an intelligent life form out there happens upon it, the being might “learn one of our languages, ask the LLM questions about us and receive replies that are representative of humanity.” These are not crackpot “scientists.” One is an astronomer with the Carl Sagan-founded SETI Institute. The other is with NASA. They make their case in an opinion piece published by Scientific American. It’s behind a paywall, but Futurism.com has posted a summary. (Sorry, can’t resist: “We’re heading for Venus and still we stand tall / ’Cause maybe they’ve seen us and welcome us all …”)
   
• Recent research in the news:
   
  • University of Florida: New AI tool predicts risk for chronic pain in cancer patients
     
  • University of Melbourne: Breakthrough in high-performance computing and quantum chemistry revolutionizes drug discovery
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Radiology Business: New ACR CEO outlines key concerns for radiology
     
  • Cardiovascular Business: FDA clears heart rhythm AI that turns smartphones into medical devices
     
  • Health Imaging: Commercially available AI tool detects 76% of PE that rads initially missed on CT