As a nurse, don't think this is a good idea. Way too many possible errors and way too many stupid people out there.
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Apple Working on Siri Feature Allowing Back-and-Forth Conversations About Health Problems
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If you can't solidly nail the basics, what makes you think you'll be able to do a good job at the extremely advanced topics?
How do medical FACTS need to be (politically/socially) "inclusive"?
This is really a bad idea. Non doctors tend to diagnose themselves with the worst possible things. If you have health questions, talk to a doctor, not a computer.
Well, everyone has medical issues / concerns, don’t they? How would you suggest medical facts not be inclusive and remain factual? What should they exclude? I know you put “politically/socially” in there, but there’s lots of things people consider political and social issues that have a bearing on health issues too.
I doubt Siri can replace or even get close to what qualified person would say and do.
This is not a map search sort of thing, we are talking about life/death thing here - not something a "computer" should decide or reason about. But maybe I'm wrong and too old to know and AI is getting smarter than I'm allowing to admit.
This is not a map search sort of thing, we are talking about life/death thing here - not something a "computer" should decide or reason about. But maybe I'm wrong and too old to know and AI is getting smarter than I'm allowing to admit.
You ask a good question. Since deployment of the feature is expected to be 2 years from now, I would think Apple is going to do a lot more than just forward your query to an existing medical advice portal like WebMD. Klae17 joked above about Siri answering a question about "constrained breathing" by reminding a user they haven't closed their rings in 6 months and their favorite locations are fast food restaurants. I think that answer may actually be more accurate Klae17 realized.
People's memories are subject to a number of different recall biases. If I ask someone how often they exercised over the past 6 months, they might give me an answer they actually believe to be true but it could be significantly off from reality. For Apple Watch users, Siri could match logged data such as heart rate, minutes of exercise, steps / day, sleeping patterns (and possibly even blood pressure if some AW S5 rumors are true) with symptoms described by a user. Siri would also know where a user has been (i.e. in an area where there has been an outbreak of a certain communicable disease or at a restaurant or grocery store linked to tainted food). This could enable Siri to prioritize the most likely causes of the symptoms being experienced rather than just going to a website listing all the possible symptoms. Such a feature would require FDA approval as it would be "intended to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose a medical condition." I see great potential for a feature like this
I kind of agree with your rationale, I don’t even like voice assistants. But this sounds like it would basically like a way to refine some search results rather than come up with an immediate answer, which might be better than just coming up with an immediate answer that is less refined because it only relied on one initial query. No?
Hopefully Siri will still encourage people to see a doctor, also something they wouldn’t necessarily get from a general, one-query search on a subject. So it could be a good thing I think.
There are some medical "issues" that are extremely politically motivated. Some would prefer any reference or discussion of those topics be banned from "medical" discussions.
Stating the above, likely means they will ignore those political sides and provide the information anyways.
I Agree with you. Facts about medical should not be politically or socially motivated. But in our current hyperpartisan world, it's an inevitibility.
Being this is in PRSI, I know what listing these topics is going to generate, but it will be important to understand that they are political, despite health related
- Abortion
- Drug use
- Contraception
- Immunization and vaccination
- LGBQTS2 related questions or health concerns
We both know, that Apple including these topics, and providing only factual data is going to rile up certain groups who don't believe these topics should be included or covered. Or that the factual data is against their belief and should be changed to match their beliefs.
This could potentially reduce the number of stupid people in the world...
You say that...
no matter how "stupid proof" we keep trying to make things, the universe has this amazing way of creating a better idiot.
Is this still a joke....Siri understands me perfectly, the ones that complain about Siri not understanding them are the native speakers.
I am non native as you might have guessed, she might not understand me in noisy environments which is understandable, we humans have the same problem, if it's not she has no problem whatsoever to hear and understand what I asked.
As for the Topic, AI could potentially help us a lot, but not if we get the wrong data, as in AI assistants deliberately giving false dat, this can be really dangerous, on the other hand, humans/companies/Apps/Algorithms(Coded by Humans) are not much better, see for instance what Facebook/Cambridge ANALitica did.
Short answer: Apple can buy the data from data brokers like every other company. "We don't sell your data" doesn't preclude them from buying your data.
Exactly this. Maybe Siri needs to pass grade school first before trying to help with health questions.
Siri: "Typical life expectancy without treatment is 6 months. Would you like me to set a timer?"
I wish Apple would just partner with an insurance company(s) and work on something great. Sure I’m biased because I work for one but all the executives talk about these days is ML, AI, NLP, blockchain, etc. Insurance companies are basically becoming tech companies with the goal of trying to keep people out of the hospital. I’d much rather see Apple invest here than in TV shows and addictive games that keep kids buried in a screen.You ask a good question. Since deployment of the feature is expected to be 2 years from now, I would think Apple is going to do a lot more than just forward your query to an existing medical advice portal like WebMD. Klae17 joked above about Siri answering a question about "constrained breathing" by reminding a user they haven't closed their rings in 6 months and their favorite locations are fast food restaurants. I think that answer may actually be more accurate Klae17 realized.
People's memories are subject to a number of different recall biases. If I ask someone how often they exercised over the past 6 months, they might give me an answer they actually believe to be true but it could be significantly off from reality. For Apple Watch users, Siri could match logged data such as heart rate, minutes of exercise, steps / day, sleeping patterns (and possibly even blood pressure if some AW S5 rumors are true) with symptoms described by a user. Siri would also know where a user has been (i.e. in an area where there has been an outbreak of a certain communicable disease or at a restaurant or grocery store linked to tainted food). This could enable Siri to prioritize the most likely causes of the symptoms being experienced rather than just going to a website listing all the possible symptoms. Such a feature would require FDA approval as it would be "intended to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose a medical condition." I see great potential for a feature like this
That's OK. Those people who have issues with science or facts should then seek other options, that could, for example, be faith-based, instead of science-based.
I'm glad Apple is pursuing this and think they'll ultimately do well.
yes, But it won't change those very same people from being vocal and antagonistic towards Apple because of tthat decision. Just pointing it out. Heck, Look at the religious nutbags who petitioned Netflix to cancel Good Omens.
they could have just... not watched it. But no, they needed to get all authoritarian and demand censorship. The same WILL happen here, even if those people are nutjobs who should just be ignored.
Considering how many Hospitals Apple has partnered with for the various features in the Health App, I doubt they would just go with WebMD.