paywall bypass: https://archive.is/whVMI
the study the article is about: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(25)00133-5/abstract
article text:
AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study
By Harry Black
August 12, 2025 at 10:30 PM UTC
Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.
AI helped health professionals to better detect pre-cancerous growths in the colon, but when the assistance was removed, their ability to find tumors dropped by about 20% compared with rates before the tool was ever introduced, according to findings published Wednesday.
Health-care systems around the world are embracing AI with a view to boosting patient outcomes and productivity. Just this year, the UK government announced £11 million ($14.8 million) in funding for a new trial to test how AI can help catch breast cancer earlier.
The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, “leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,” the scientists said in the paper.
They surveyed four endoscopy centers in Poland and compared detection success rates three months before AI implementation and three months after. Some colonoscopies were performed with AI and some without, at random. The results were published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology journal.
Yuichi Mori, a researcher at the University of Oslo and one of the scientists involved, predicted that the effects of de-skilling will “probably be higher” as AI becomes more powerful.
What’s more, the 19 doctors in the study were highly experienced, having performed more than 2,000 colonoscopies each. The effect on trainees or novices might be starker, said Omer Ahmad, a consultant gastroenterologist at University College Hospital London.
“Although AI continues to offer great promise to enhance clinical outcomes, we must also safeguard against the quiet erosion of fundamental skills required for high-quality endoscopy,” Ahmad, who wasn’t involved in the research, wrote a comment alongside the article.
A study conducted by MIT this year raised similar concerns after finding that using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to write essays led to less brain engagement and cognitive activity.
AI Eroded Doctors' Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study
Submitted 19 hours ago by cm0002@piefed.world to technology@lemmy.zip
RogueBanana@piefed.zip 18 hours ago
Also very apparent in IT. Juniors blindly generating garbage and coming to me when the shit they blindly create doesn't work. Got to drill them with questions to make them actually learn something. Concerning that the same is happening in medical even for the experts.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
It sounds like this is about when they stopped using AI.
If they do better with it than without it, why optimize how good they are without it? Like, I know how to do math, by hand. But I also own a calculator. If the speed and accuracy of my multiplication is life-and-death for worried families, maybe I should use the calculator.
Baggie@lemmy.zip 16 hours ago
If your use a calculator, and it gives you back a number that can’t possibly be right, you know there’s an error somewhere along the line.
If you’ve never done multiplication before, you won’t have that innate sense of what looks right or wrong.
subignition@piefed.social 7 hours ago
Because "AI" tools are unsustainable, and it would be better not to have destroyed your actual skill when the bubble eventually pops.
RogueBanana@piefed.zip 11 hours ago
No, this is about me trying to fix their buggy ai code that they have no idea how it works and what it isn't working. If you can do your work completely on your own without issues then whatever but if you are breaking stuff and come to me along for help cause you don't know how your own code works then that's a massive problem. I don't mind teaching people, I actually enjoy it but that's only when you are putting in effort to learn it instead of copy pasting code from copilot.
ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 13 hours ago
If you’re doing it once, then that’s fine. But if you have to do it loads of times, and things keep getting more complex, you’ll find that you won’t be able to correctly use the tools anymore and spot its mistakes.
AI raises your skill level a bit, but also stumps your growth if used irresponsibly. And that growth may be necessary later on, especially if you’re a junior in the field still.