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October 26, 2026 · Science & Health · Mixed or disputed evidence
Should AI be allowed to diagnose patients?
Side order is shuffled for each reader.
Side A · “AI can catch what doctors miss”
Diagnosis is pattern-finding, a strong fit for machine learning; leading researchers argue AI can match or beat doctors on some diagnostic tasks.
In a 2025 Microsoft test on 304 complex medical-journal cases, its AI system reached the right diagnosis far more often than doctors working alone, while ordering fewer tests.
Where critics push back hardest: those were puzzle cases with doctors denied their usual tools and colleagues, not everyday patients.
Shared ground: both sides see promise in AI as a second opinion that supports doctors.
Disputed evidence: whether strong test-case scores carry over to real patients, real clinics and people describing their own symptoms.
Values and priorities: faster, cheaper access to diagnosis versus safety, fairness and who is accountable when AI is wrong.
Side B · “Not without a doctor in charge”
In a randomized Oxford study of about 1,300 people, those using AI chatbots identified the right condition less often and underestimated how serious it was.
Researchers have found chatbots repeating false, race-based medical claims, so errors can fall hardest on some patients.
Where critics push back hardest: doctors also make frequent diagnostic errors, and AI keeps improving quickly.