About why AI hasn't replaced highly paid brain surgeons as Alphabet pushes into healthcare.
Has this happened?
Yes 3 (2%)Not sure 11 (9%)No 108 (89%)
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About why AI hasn't replaced highly paid brain surgeons as Alphabet pushes into healthcare.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
I am not aware of any AI model or technology that functions as anything beyond a toy in the healthcare space. There's very little utility to labelling things in healthcare - even in fields like ophthalmology, dermatology or radiology where companies have made some advances. Humans already do it very well and it's about 1% of the actual battle. Show me an AI that that can make a diagnosis, counsel a patient's family emergently, take the patient to surgery and do a craniotomy then nurse the patient for weeks in the neuro-ICU and I'll be super impressed.
Moreover, it's the patient, not the neurosurgeon that has to make the decision to trust the AI.