Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis explains why AI could replace doctors but not nurses

As artificial intelligence systems get better with each passing day there has been a growing threat that the jobs held by humans could soon be replaced by these new tools. In the last few weeks alone we’ve had Amazon CEO Andy Jassy saying that AI will reduce company’s workforce in the coming years. 

Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also delivered a similar warning during a interview last month when he said, “Everybody’s jobs will be affected. Some jobs will be lost. Many jobs will be created and what I hope is that the productivity gains that we see in all the industries will lift society,” 

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is at the forefront of this AI revolution and believes artificial intelligence is an ‘additive’ at the moment and the real change in job scenarios could happen in the next five to ten years. Hassabis also states in an interaction with Wired that news jobs would be created due to artificial intelligence. 

“I think there’s gonna be a lot of change with the jobs world, but I think as in the past, what generally tends to happen is new jobs are created that are actually better, that utilize these tools or new technologies” Hassabis told Wired

Demis Hassabis explains why AI can replace doctors but not nurses:

During the interaction Hassabis was also asked that if AGI or artificial general intelligence will be able to do every job that humans do at the moment then what will stop the technology from replacing these new jobs that he talks about. 

Hassabis then goes on to give the example of how AI could potentially replace a doctor but not nurses because the latter’s job involves a lot of human empathy. 

“There’s a lot of things I think we won’t want to do with a machine.” Hassabis told the publication. 

“You know, I sometimes give this example of doctors and nurses. Maybe a doctor and what the doctor does and the diagnosis, one could imagine that being helped by AI tool or even having an AI kind of doctor.” he added

“On the other hand, like nursing, you know, I don’t think you’d want a robot to do that. I think there’s something about the human empathy aspect of that and the care, and so on, that’s particularly humanistic. I think there’s lots of examples like that but it’s gonna be a different world for sure.” Hassabis further noted