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AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure

AI and Cancer: Why Superintelligence Won’t Get Us to a Cure

Your Undivided Attention vor 4 Monaten

"AI will cure cancer" is the promise driving the race to superintelligence. But what if it's a false promise being used to justify an unfettered race for profit? That's what Dr. Emilia Javorsky argues on this week's episode. She makes the case that AI can

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One of the most common arguments you hear from company executives
racing to develop super-intelligent AI is that it will cure
cancer. It’s an incredibly powerful and seductive promise.

If superintelligent AI really can cure cancer, then anyone who
stands in the way of it, anyone who wants to slow it down — even
because of its serious risks — is essentially letting people die.
In fact, the biggest risk would be going too slowly. But what if
a superintelligent AI isn’t actually capable of solving
cancer in the way it's been described? What if we're being sold a
false promise to justify a dangerous race?

That’s exactly what our guest this week argues is happening. Dr.
Emilia Javorsky is a physician, public health researcher, and
director of the Futures Program at the Future of Life Institute.
She's worked across scientific research, clinical trials, tech
startups, and AI policy. Emilia recently wrote a paper
titled “How AI Can and Can't Cure Cancer,” in which she argues
that the promise of superintelligence curing cancer falls apart
under scrutiny.

Emilia lost a parent to cancer, so her criticism of this promise
comes from a place of real concern, not cynicism. It also comes
from her belief that AI can be really revolutionary for medicine,
if we build it the right way.

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for
Humane Technology. Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_ and subscribe to
our Substack.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

How AI Can and Can’t Cure Cancer by Emilia Javorsky

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES

Decoding Our DNA: How AI Supercharges Medical Breakthroughs and
Biological Threats with Kevin Esvelt

Forever Chemicals, Forever Consequences: What PFAS Teaches Us
About AI

Big Food, Big Tech and Big AI with Michael Moss

CLARIFICATIONS:

Emilia’s claim that “the doubling rate of medical knowledge
has gone from 50 years in the 1950s down to 73 days” comes from
an oft-cited 2011 paper from the NIH. However, this paper does
not include any methodology for arriving at this claim.

Emilia stated that we have yet to cure any complex, chronic
disease in humans. However, we have been able to cure Hepatitis
C, which is considered a complex infectious disease, and we have
managed to effectively cure some types of Leukemia

Correction: Tristan incorrectly paraphrased a
quote from Charlie Munger about incentives. The actual quote is
“The basic rule of incentives is you get what you were owed for.
So if you have a dumb incentive system, you get dumb
outcomes."

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