this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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Dr. Mehmet Oz is pitching a controversial fix for America's rural health care crisis: artificial intelligence.

"There's no question about it — whether you want it or not — the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars," Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said recently at an event focused on addiction and mental health hosted by Action for Progress, a coalition aimed at improving behavioral health care. He said AI could multiply the reach of doctors fivefold — or more — without burning them out.

The AI proposal is part of the Trump administration's $50 billion plan to modernize health care in rural communities. That includes deploying tools such as digital avatars to conduct basic medical interviews, robotic systems for remote diagnostics, and drones to deliver medication where pharmacies don't exist.

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[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 8 points 2 days ago

Telemedicine: better than nothing, already used a fair amount in the more inaccessible parts of Canada (ideally in combination with a nursing station so there's someone with some training available to do things that absolutely need hands on location).

AI medicine: likely worse than nothing, some people are going to get killed.

[–] karashta@piefed.social 35 points 3 days ago

Dr Oz? You mean that guy in the Trump-Epstein Files?

[–] Tramort@programming.dev 44 points 3 days ago

Isn't Dr Oz prominently featured in the Trump-Epstein-Bondi files?

[–] XLE@piefed.social 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Tax dollars well spent. Instead of the MAGA nightmare of public healthcare (where they think doctors will encourage them to commit suicide), we'll spend $50 billion on private healthcare and give it to companies with chatbots that tell you to kill yourself instead.

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

Sounds like a plan. What do you think Mr. Altman?

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Exactly. Except it would be more like the one Tom and Harry designed. And not holographic.

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The way these guys push AI - “whether you want it or not” - makes me sure there is something much more sinister about this tech than the bumbling autocorrect idiocy we know it as. Is it the greatest spying tool ever? Is it designed to siphon all money from all businesses that previously went to wages for both skilled and unskilled labor? Does it subtly brainwash people?

I d been a tech guy my entire life, but it’s really looking like we need to destroy it all.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

There is one endgame to EVERYTHING that MAGA is doing: Slavery.

They are going all in on AI/Robotics, and soon they are going to replace as many jobs as possible, creating a PERMANENT unemployment class of at least 40%, probably higher. Those who can't pay their bills, run up a lot of credit, or need any sort of government assistance like food and shelter, and unemployment payments (essentially UBI), etc. will be put in the same enormous ICE facilities they are building all over America, including a brand new 30,000 bed facility in Guantanamo Bay that they are building from the ground up. Opening is scheduled for 2029, so MAGA clearly expects to be around to utilize it.

And what will they do with all those poor people? Improve their lives by giving them a good work ethic. They don't expect to get free money, that's immoral, and America is a MORAL nation. For your own good, and personal enrichment, you will be leased out as slave labor under the 13th Amendment in order to pay back your debt to the American taxpayer. BTW, your efforts will be taxed against your account, which grows every month.

You love the Constitution don't you? You think MAGA should abide by every word, don't you? Well they are abiding by every letter of the 13th Amendment. If you want to question that, maybe we should look at some other Amendments like the 14th, that prohibits Insurrectionists from holding office, AND allows Birthright Citizenship. They love the 13th, but they really hate the 14th. Not big lovers of the 4th either. Or any of them really. Not even the 2nd. That's their next Epstein Files. They'll use it to get elected, then take it away.

So if you love and defend the Constitution, you'll love and defend Slavery. And, of course, cheap slave labor will eventually take the last paid manual jobs that can't be done by AI/Robotics, and contribute to an even higher unemployment rate. We will quickly reach a point where there are more slaves than available jobs, so what do we do with useless, hungry, reproducing people who are draining precious profits from MAGA profits?

I think we all know the answer, especially when you know that Stephen "PeeWee Himmler" Miller has said that he wants to reduce the population from 335 million, to 100 million, about a 70% reduction. That psycho jerks off to Auschwitz photos, so you know what HIS plans are.

Arbeit Macht Frei!

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

Nailed it. Preach, brother!

Let’s get the psychos the fuck out of power and hopefully behind bars.

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Not even the 2nd. That's their next Epstein Files. They'll use it to get elected, then take it away.

They already are. Look, name one other president that said anything close to 'take their guns first, due process second' or outright said a citizens' murder by law enforcement was justified due to carrying a legal CCW with additional ammo?

Conservatives got played like a fucking fiddle, and they're happy about it because minorities are suffering. Their only regrets is they're getting hurt along with them.

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The NRA even denouced him for the attempted on gun rights

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

And yet I doubt it will impact republican support by more than a precent or two at most

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

It is a felony in Texas to practice medicine without a license. Probably most other jurisdictions. Who is serving the jail time?

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 days ago

Dr Oz is a pigged eye sack of shit, who spreads so much disinformation.

[–] Lodespawn@aussie.zone 14 points 3 days ago

There is no way this could end badly. I hope they call the chatbot Dr OzAI just to really cement the outcome to his brand.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 10 points 3 days ago

With this AI, we can even put DOCTORS out of business! Think of the profits we'll make!

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Remember that (I think) C++ race condition in RTG software, that killed people with something like 0.0001% probability and it was a huge deal and a reason to immediately retire the devices (or maybe just fix the bug, the point is that in medical, it's super important to have a high success chance)?

I'm sure AI doing diagnosis will be able to get to a higher success chance, lol.

EDIT: From a quick search, it looks like mis-diagnosis chance in doctors is around 10%. I still don't think AI can do better.

I'll give AI this much credit. I have a rare disease that took me nearly two decades to get diagnosed. I saw over 20 doctors during that time, most of which had no idea while the rest misdiagnosed me.

I had a little intro script I wrote that explained my symptoms to keep it consistent. My roommate is a big AI proponent while I'm AI critical. At his suggestion, I signed up for a free trial for his favorite and gave it my little intro script. It processed for a few seconds, then spit out the correct diagnosis and subtype, then started asking if I had symptoms for a related comorbidity, which I do. That would have saved me 22 years of pain and confusion. WTF.

I've had a related chronic injury for this entire time that even my condition-aware doctors have been baffled by. I explained it in detail and AI barfed out its best guess. I worked with it until I had a possible rehab program, which is actually working.

So now I'm AI ambivalent. I strongly believe humans are at best passable doctors, but that the breadth of information for even one discipline is already more than most humans can properly understand and utilize. That's how you end up with orthopedists that just specialize in one joint or dermatologists who concentrate on just a few conditions - there's just too much knowledge for one person to handle all of it and that knowledge continues to grow. As medical science becomes even more advanced, I think practitioners will have to lean on technology in some form as the practice of medicine further outstrips human capabilities.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 days ago

AI is a much better tool to help experts than replace them.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"The patient died but we were able to repair his avatar." /s

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

His AI avatar can still post bullshit on Facebook, so it's like he never died!

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So .. I think there might be a dispute between health insurance companies and these AI doctors .

The insurance companies aren't going to pay for this.

They barely will pay for telemedicine as it is.

They won't pay for anything they aren't legally required to pay for.

They won't pay for any service unless a court review would say it was medically necessary, and even then, they trying to not pay if they think the person is too poor to take them to court over it.

As much as I hate the greedy bastards. They have also protected us from a lot of pseudoscience health care.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 3 days ago

My physical therapist's office has a lady in the Philippines do the check-ins remotely. Maybe we should look more toward that sort of thing. An MA could remotely ask about symptoms, for example, and it would be easy enough to have people take their own temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One of the pedophiles that isn't the president.

[–] EpeeGnome@feddit.online 6 points 3 days ago

A TV ~~doctor~~ snake oil marketer turned MAGA official.