Nvidia creates $9-an-hour AI ‘agents’ that outperform human nurses
March 26, 2024
Tech firm Nvidia has collaborated with Hippocratic AI to develop generative AI “agents” for healthcare that purportedly outperform human nurses on video calls while being more cost-effective.
Key points:
- On March 21, Nvidia and Hippocratic AI announced their plans to create “empathetic healthcare agents” as an innovative solution to ease the shortage of healthcare workers in the U.S.
- “With generative AI, we have the opportunity to address some of the most pressing needs of the healthcare industry,” said Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI, according to New Atlas. “We can help mitigate widespread staffing shortages and increase access to high-quality care – all while improving outcomes for patients.”
The details:
- The AI agents, which are trained on Hippocratic’s large language model (LLM), reportedly excel in forming human connections with patients through “super-low latency conversational reactions.” Tested by over 1,000 nurses and 100 physicians, the bots have reportedly shown superior performance compared to human nurses and other rivals, including OpenAI‘s GPT-4 and the LLaMA 2 70B Chat.
- According to Hippocratic AI’s Constellation model, the AI nurses outperformed humans in identifying medication impacts on lab values (79% vs. 63%), recognizing condition-specific disallowed over-the-counter medications (88% vs. 45%), accurately comparing lab values to reference ranges (96% vs. 93%) and detecting toxic dosages of over-the-counter drugs (81% vs. 57%).
- The $9-hourly cost of these AI agents is significantly lower compared to human nurses, whose median hourly pay was $39.05 as of 2022, making the bots a cost-effective option for healthcare providers.
Concerns:
- While some see these agents as a solution to staffing shortages and improving patient outcomes, others have expressed concerns. The cost-effectiveness of AI agents compared to human nurses raises questions about the quality of care provided. Human nurses offer not only clinical expertise but also emotional support and holistic patient care, which AI agents may lack.
- There is also apprehension about the potential compartmentalization of healthcare and the loss of autonomy among healthcare professionals. The introduction of AI-powered agents could lead to the delegation of tasks and further specialization, potentially hindering knowledge transfer and holistic patient care.
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