Arianna Huffington criticizes AI promises to cure all diseases in TIME
In a TIME column, Arianna Huffington criticized statements by artificial intelligence industry leaders about the possibility of curing most or all human diseases within the next five to ten years. She considers such forecasts exaggerated, as technology cannot eliminate the impact of daily habits and human choices on health.
In particular, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis previously stated that AI could cure all diseases, possibly within the next decade. Huffington stresses that AI can accelerate drug development and personalize behavioral recommendations, but it cannot cure all diseases without taking into account lifestyle, free will, and human nature.
The role of lifestyle
Huffington cites an estimate according to which about 80% of chronic diseases and premature deaths are linked not to genes but to lifestyle — diet, physical activity, sleep, the ability to manage stress, and social connections.
Cardiologist Eric Topol noted that there are currently no ways to cure such common diseases as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, or heart disease. He called expectations that new drugs would fundamentally change the situation within five or ten years unrealistic and warned against inflated expectations regarding AI.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The complexity of diseases
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health senior researcher Catherine Young stressed that cancer is not one disease: it comprises more than 200 different diseases with distinct causes, biology, and mechanisms. According to her, scientists who study cancer rarely speak of curing it, as such wording oversimplifies the problem.
The author also mentioned a forecast by Francis Collins, who in 2000, while leading the Human Genome Project, expected that within 20–25 years it would be possible to prevent or treat most cases of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and asthma. After 26 years, according to Huffington, the world is facing a growing prevalence of chronic diseases. insitro CEO Daphne Koller called belief in a technological solution an assumption of a “magic wand.”
Huffington called for giving the development of healthy daily habits no less attention than the creation of increasingly powerful AI models.
