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. 2023 Nov 9;18(11):e0294028.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294028. eCollection 2023.

American public opinion on artificial intelligence in healthcare

Jessica Rojahn  1 , Andrea Palu  1 , Steven Skiena  2 , Jason J Jones  1   3
Affiliations

American public opinion on artificial intelligence in healthcare

Jessica Rojahn et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Billions of dollars are being invested into developing medical artificial intelligence (AI) systems and yet public opinion of AI in the medical field seems to be mixed. Although high expectations for the future of medical AI do exist in the American public, anxiety and uncertainty about what it can do and how it works is widespread. Continuing evaluation of public opinion on AI in healthcare is necessary to ensure alignment between patient attitudes and the technologies adopted. We conducted a representative-sample survey (total N = 203) to measure the trust of the American public towards medical AI. Primarily, we contrasted preferences for AI and human professionals to be medical decision-makers. Additionally, we measured expectations for the impact and use of medical AI in the future. We present four noteworthy results: (1) The general public strongly prefers human medical professionals make medical decisions, while at the same time believing they are more likely to make culturally biased decisions than AI. (2) The general public is more comfortable with a human reading their medical records than an AI, both now and "100 years from now." (3) The general public is nearly evenly split between those who would trust their own doctor to use AI and those who would not. (4) Respondents expect AI will improve medical treatment but more so in the distant future than immediately.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. When an emergency room must make a triage decision—which patients should be treated first—which system do you think should be used?
Fig 2
Fig 2. When it comes to an individual patient’s discharge decision—should this patient leave the hospital now—which system do you think should be used?
Fig 3
Fig 3. In your opinion, which system is more likely to make culturally biased decisions?
Fig 4
Fig 4. For the purpose of greater scientific understanding, how comfortable are you with reading your medical records
Fig 5
Fig 5. In your opinion, how much will artificial intelligence improve treatment of medical problems over the current status quo in the next 10 (50) years?
Fig 6
Fig 6. Would you trust your own doctor to use an artificial intelligence system to diagnose a condition for you?
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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