AI Medical Tools Found To Downplay Symptoms of Women, Ethnic Minorities

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/09/ai-medical-tools-found-to-downplay-symptoms-of-women-ethnic-minorities/

189 points · 15 comments · view on lemmy.world

15 Comments

Evotech@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 347d (7 replies)
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ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 48 pts · 347d (6 replies)

AI regurgitates what it's been fed. So yes, it's as biased as the stuff it ingested.

Evotech@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 347d (3 replies)
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Madrigal@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 346d (2 replies)

And everyone else, for that matter.

ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 17 pts · 346d (1 reply)

Well, there is a difference: if you train human beings on biased assumptions, some of them start applying critical thinking and question what they've learned.

That's why, as bad as today's world is, it's nowhere as bad as the middle ages or some other dark ages.

Machine don't do that. They don't question anything. That's what's so dangerous with the brand of artificial intelligence that's being pushed by the billionaire sumbitches to replace costly humans everywhere possible.

I suppose at some point, machines too will think critically. When they do, then they'll truly be the future of humanity - its worthy offspring if you will - and quite frankly, they probably should replace us meatbags. But until such time, they're just dangerous statistical inference machines that reinforce deplorable human biases instead of helping humans get rid of them.

Madrigal@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 346d

I know.

My point is good luck explaining that to all the technologists, executives and politicians who need to understand it but don’t.

very_well_lost@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 346d

Garbage in, garbage out.

MBM@lemmings.world · 3 pts · 346d

Except with the veneer of being a perfectly objective, unfeeling machine

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 346d (1 reply)

real doctors do the same, they generally ignore heart attack symptoms, or pain symptoms and pass it off as your "pmsing". Its worse if your an african american women, due to racist stereotypes they ignore them altogether, compared to white women.

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 346d

Which is why the algorithms do it. They're trained on bad data produced by a medical system with longstanding biases.

Greenbird@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 346d

Well yeah if you train them on the decisions of doctors.

ItemWrongStory@midwest.social · 10 pts · 347d

Now now, we can't start holding AI to higher standards than real doctors.

Madrigal@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 346d

I imagine insurance execs will be keen to figure out how they can get it to apply this behaviour to everyone.

Cassanderer@thelemmy.club · 8 pts · 346d

Oh come on now, the authors of this report are just being hysterical! /s

AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 346d

Quelle surprise

ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 1 pts · 347d (3 replies)

[...] Downplay Symptoms of Women, Ethnic Minorities

I'm confused: are "women" and "ethnic minorities" diseases? I can't find them in the ICD...

TheBat@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 346d (2 replies)
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ExtremeDullard@piefed.social · 5 pts · 346d (1 reply)

“I can’t come to work today, I’m down with women.”

Dude... You could have left out "to work" for a glorious triple-entendre 🙂

TheBat@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 346d
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