Dr. Watson? Watson, Esq.?

April 22nd, 2012

At the We Robot Conference, Ian Kerr and Jason Millar write about expert robots, in this case Dr. Watson–Watson adapted to medicine:

Delegation, Relinquishment and Responsibility: The Prospect of Expert Robots

Michael Froomkin asks will Dr. Watson kill medical theory or cause a loss of skill in medicine as we need fewer doctors? Froomkin also asks if a computer can predict the outcome of cases, will we all become legla realists?

Need to avoid a robot monoculture- danger of a consistent and hard to erase error. Would it be negligent to allow data/design monoculture if it has a systemic risk? If one system has a better success rate than another, how can we justify ever using the waker one.

I like the phrase Dr. Watson? So what about Watson, Esq.?

And there was an article about the conference in the Miami Herald.