Artificial Empathy | Trishan Panch | TEDxBoston

Описание: In this enlightening talk, Dr. Trishan Panch introduces the concept of Artificial Empathy (AE), a novel perspective on the role of AI in healthcare and beyond. Drawing on his medical background, Panch explores the limitations of artificial intelligence and suggests the integration of empathy into AI systems, which he believes could revolutionize the healthcare landscape and other sectors.

Dr. Panch begins by emphasizing that trust and confidence, cornerstones of human relationships, are essential in healthcare. While AI can inspire confidence through its vast knowledge base and problem-solving capabilities, it currently lacks the empathetic aspect that reinforces the patient-clinician relationship. Existing AI systems are incapable of experiencing human empathy, but Panch argues that they can mimic empathetic behaviors in beneficial ways, thus creating a sense of Artificial Empathy.

He highlights a recent study that demonstrated AI chatbots responding to social media posts with more empathy and higher quality than human clinicians, according to patient evaluations. The implication is that AE could potentially improve patient experience in healthcare and vastly extend the reach of therapies.

Panch believes AE is not just important but essential. Given the vast number of people struggling with diseases that have a psychological component, there's an urgent need for effective, scalable solutions. Currently, only a small percentage of people who need talking therapies have access to them. AE could bridge this gap.

The path to AE, according to Panch, lies not in trying to teach machines to 'feel' empathy, but in tuning AI models to mimic empathetic behaviors based on diverse human experiences. The goal is to create a tool that can provide useful and scalable empathy, even if it's different from human empathy. This prospect, while met with resistance by some, could be transformative in dealing with human suffering on a grand scale.

Finally, Panch urges the audience to think beyond Artificial Intelligence and consider Artificial Empathy. He challenges us to reflect on our role in shaping these technologies and their applications, and to strive for the fairest possible distribution of their benefits.

Dr Panch is an entrepreneur, physician, executive and keynote speaker.

He co-founded Wellframe and co-led the company from inception in 2012 to acquisition by Blackstone/Health Edge in 2021 serving as Chief Medical Officer, Chief Product Officer and Chief Innovation Officer. He is the holder of a full utility patent on the Wellframe technology and is the inaugural recipient of Harvard’s Public Health Innovation Award for his work in Digital Health.

He is the President of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Alumni Association and is responsible for advancing the strategic interests of the school and it's 13,000 alumni. He is also an Instructor at HSPH and founder and director of ""Applied AI for Health Care"" - a certificate program in AI for healthcare executives.

He serves on the Innovation Advisory Board of Boston Children's Hospital and is Vice President of the Board of Directors at Healthcare for All - a leading health policy think tank and advocacy organisation. He practiced medicine for 17 years and lead a large risk bearing primary care group in London serving an urban population with high levels of economic deprivation.

He is an active angel investor in the Harvard and MIT community and has been nominated to serve as the healthcare expert in residence at Harvard's iLab since 2019. He has delivered multiple keynote presentations for healthcare organizations, management consultancies, life sciences companies and technology companies in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx