The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Health Care
BY DOUGLAS WOLF| August 10th, 2025
It is a cliche, but it applies because it is true: Everything imagined in science fiction will one day become science fact. 160 years ago the science fiction writers such as Jules Verne imagined submarines, flying machines, rocketry, mobile radios and a form of the internet. Today, these inventions are an everyday part of our lives.
The question facing us today, as a society and as humans in general is how is Artificial Intelligence going to be integrated\regulated with our daily lives going forward. The gurus of AI technology (the video here features Eric Schmidt the co-founder of Google).
In this video Schmidt claims that all the problems of physics will be solved by AI in the next two years. According to him, solving physics problems will form the basis of solutions in chemistry, biology, mathematics and all basic science. The possibilities stagger the imagination. Not only could the diseases of humankind be eliminated or greatly mitigated, but understanding quantum entanglement in physics could lead to travel that is faster than light.
On a more pedestrian level, all of our customer service now done by humans will be with AI driven chatbots, with human like characteristics. We have passed the Turing test this year, so that your order taker at McDonalds will be better and more accurate at the drive–through. Try AI now in Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The results are very good and no more links to advertisements based on your search. Hmmm, how will Google continue to dominate online advertising?
Eugenics or Health Care?
My headline includes the topic of Health Care -which is the ability of humans to manipulate our DNA using a technology named CRISPR. The idea of manipulating the human genome prior to birth was explored in a novel by Aldous Huxley in 1932. He wrote a dystopian book called Brave New World. His view was that governments would create humans with low intelligence to do menial tasks (the stuff our illegal immigrants do today) who would not need much in the way of remuneration-basically slave laborers without a soul. Who or what will decide how to regulate or control these human androids?
What happens when Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) (the next generation of AI) is set to work on our DNA for the purposes of improving humans health by editing genes in future humans? The promise of eliminating cancers, heart disease are too compelling to stop. Already, CRISPR has been used to clinically treat several DNA based diseases:
- Blood cancers
- Haemoglobinopathies
- Solid cancers
- Viral diseases
- Metabolic disorders
- Autoimmune diseases
- Hereditary amyloidosis
- Inherited eye diseases
- Cardiovascular disease
- Bacterial diseases
- Immunodeficiencies
- Haemophilia
- Neurological conditions
- Muscular dystrophy
- Other rare inherited diseases
The Trump administration has overturned all the Biden restrictions which had limited AI research to a select group of companies. Now, virtually anyone can raise money and start an AI or AGI firm and they are.
Artificial Soldiers? CyBorgs, DNA Armies?
Drones powered by AI are dominating the war in Ukraine. Targeting is getting so precise that anyone near the frontlines can be immediately targeted by a single-strike drone. The movie Terminator is the prototype android. The movie RoboCop from 1987 predicted police force of combined human with machine capabilities. But, imagine AI creating embryos that are embedded with computer chips and DNA that removes all human remorse or guilt like the Terminator robot.
Medical Mistakes
A 2018 Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors. Other reports claim the numbers to be as high as 440,000.
Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
Also, data shows that about 30% of initial diagnosis by doctors are wrong, leading to the wrong treatment. Studies with AI as it is today, showed that error rates dropped to 5% when AI and a doctor work together with a patient. But, eliminating the doctor’s input totally, the error rate dropped to zero.
Doctor Shortages
The US is faced with major loss of medical professionals at every level. Internists and nurses are in short supply as most Arizonans in Tucson can attest. Saddlebrooke used to have a full-time clinic at the Mini Mart only a few years ago. Today the only medical professional in SaddleBrooke is a cardiovascular specialist who shares an office with Desert Life Pharmacy.
Again, in the near future, (except for emergencies) you will be likely meeting with your primary care professional via telehealth from home not in an office. The doctor may or may not, be a real live human. The advantage for you is not having to travel, being able to get a getting a consult in odd hours and the “doctor” will have mountains of medical data in is memory that can be analyzed immediately and diagnose your malady or advise on a course of preventative medicine.
Investing
Assuming AI is the future seems to be a good bet. The companies that are in the lead in this technology are the usual suspects, Google, Meta, Microsoft and a few others. The biggest winner thus far is NVIDIA which makes the type of computer chips which all AI computers are based. NVIDIA was the first company to have a market worth of 4 Trillion.
Also, the AI computers use enormous sums of electricity to produce AI. Pinal County just approved a large data center south of Eloy while the not so forward thinkers in Pima county rejected the future-out of concern for water usage. Google is planning a data center the same size as Manhattan island.
The AI future is here, like it or not.
