For many, the term “artificial intelligence” evokes concerns about job displacement or dispassionate decisions made absent human touch. However, it’s crucial to recognize that AI is not just a job eliminator but also its creator. The technology has the potential to generate new, potentially higher-paying job opportunities, making those with AI application knowledge invaluable assets in a sector driven by ideas and innovation. It also opens the possibility of ensuring racial and economic disparities are not overlooked by embedded human oversight.
Technological advances, including AI, are like fire—destructive and essential. Our mastery of fire has been vital to industrial and technological progress, from smelting iron to the steam engine to sterilizing food and medical instruments. But, unchecked, fire is a destructive, societal danger. Similarly, AI can be a force for positive change, but it requires a positive perspective and responsible use to avoid potential dangers and greater socio-economic disparities.
By tapping into AI’s potential, we can create a future where human ingenuity and machine learning work together to improve the well-being of people and the planet. For instance, AI can assist in medical diagnoses, climate change predictions, and disaster response, among other areas. But to make that possible, we will need the courage and curiosity to see AI as humanity’s partner rather than an unwelcomed competitor – to leverage its strengths to complement our own.
Language matters, so we might be better off and more equipped to apply smart technologies by thinking about AI not merely as “artificial intelligence but, at the same time, “augmented implementation.”
AI is not theoretical. It’s already transforming drug research and discovery and patient care delivery. From the research bench to the patient bedside, augmented implementation accelerates the discovery of new drugs and optimizes clinical trials, assigning the right patients to the right protocol. In hospitals, AI enhances resource allocation, accelerates clinical decision-making, personalizes patient care, automates administrative tasks such as billing and scheduling follow-up appointments, and tracks supply-chain necessities to avoid drug shortages. These implementation advancements result in better patient outcomes, reduced health costs, and a more effective care delivery system.
So, what is the problem? It seems evident that embracing these information technologies can make us smarter and faster – even fail smarter and faster. We don’t even need to know coding. Large language models (LLMs) with the proper prompts can generate code based on a natural language description of the desired functionality.
Perhaps the problem isn’t the technology; it’s humanity. While most believe that humanity will triumph over tech, people’s fears translate into “pump the breaks” reflexes. But go slow quickly also ensures guardrails are in place for its appropriate use. These transformative informational technologies are happening; now it’s a question of protecting people’s privacy and well-being, using these platforms ethically and responsibly, and keeping our eye on the prize – people’s healthy lives and the planet’s sustainable future.
20 AI/ChatGPT/LLM Champions to Follow
Once again, selecting only 20 thoughtful pathfinders for this listing was a challenge. There are thousands of people writing, speaking, and commenting about AI. It remains a hot topic and is always trendy. This list is not an exclusive roster of people speaking about or explaining AI possibilities. Those that do appear are key voices of influence at the frontlines of AI, GenAI, ChatGPT and LLMs and are boldly guiding the health sector and other related industries to adapt to these technologies ethically and practically. There is no turning back! For that reason, it is important to follow their social posts, speeches, and writings. They are consultants, physicians, policymakers, teachers and theorists. What they say and write should inform opinions and directions. Follow them and get smarter faster or fail slowly.
On this list, you will notice several differences from our last roster. First, we begin with including an LLM model we have been tracking and recommend following closely. Dave AI was the topic of a previous Medika Life article and is a role model for those interested in the potential of LLM technology to augment the patient-care team’s abilities and desire to help and heal. Dave AI offers patients WAZE-AI-like information support.
We have also included an organizational policy leader to close the list—Hal Wolf, President and CEO of HIMSS. We have interviewed Hal before, and his global community, nearing 40,000 members, comprises health leaders and government representatives who are setting the parameters for how these smart technologies can be used wisely.
Acknowledgments
Special appreciation to Medika Life colleagues such as Drs. Robert Turner, Patricia Farrell, and Michael Hunter, who inspire and the many others from numerous circles I meet at meetings CNS Summit, DHAI, HIMSS, HITLAB, HLTH, and ViVE and who share their thoughts and contribute recommendations. Many who appeared on the initial list of global voices keep in touch and share news of sector colleagues who are in the thick of the conversation. Special acknowledgment to people who appeared on previous Medika Life lists and continue along the path to improve the well-being of people and the planet. These exemplary people are dedicated to improving people’s health and we applaud their efforts to make a difference.
Since the dawn of time, people have been in awe and fear about advances made in times marked by technologies—from fire to AI: the Stone Age, Iron Age, and now, today’s Information and Sustainability Age. Humanity must decide how best to deploy these transformative “thinking” technologies. The emphasis on objective and expansive (courageous) “thinking”—the human touch—remains constant.
Gil Bashe, Editor–in-Chief, Medika.Life
AI and ChatGPT Global Voices of Influence
Here is our Medika Life roster of 20 people to follow in alphabetical order—all-important voices to track and learn from in the coming years. We have included links to the social media platforms and bios wherever available.
Follow these Voices of Influence—they are accessible leaders who write and speak on the future of how AI, ChatGPT, GenAI, and LLMs will be essential to health system transformation and the future of care delivery.
Dave AI
Dave is the world’s first LLM conversational AI oncology mentor for cancer patients, bringing a new level of support for cancer patients and their families and trained on billions of unique data points and anonymized real-world patient journey information accumulated during eight years on the Belong Life platform. Learn how LLMs make a difference for patients and the care team, “Meet Dave” and see the practical possibilities and potential of LLMs.
Anima Anandkumar, PhD
Anima Anandkumar is a Bren Professor at Caltech. Her work developing novel artificial intelligence algorithms enables and accelerates scientific applications of AI, including scientific simulations, weather forecasting, autonomous drone flights, and drug design. Anandkumar is a fellow of the ACM, IEEE, Schmidt Science, Guggenheim and Alfred. P. Sloan Foundations.
Brian Anderson, MD
Dr. Brian Anderson is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI). He leads a national coalition developing technical standards and best practices for MLOps, including governance, testing, evaluation, and monitoring in Health AI Assurance Labs. Dr. Anderson led the Informatics and Network Medicine Division at Athenahealth, where he launched a new approach to clinical decision support leveraging machine learning models.
Pascal Bornet
Pascal Bornet is an award-winning expert, author, keynote speaker, influencer, and thought leader in artificial intelligence. He has received multiple technology and artificial intelligence awards. Various research and consultancy firms rank him as one of the top 10 global experts in AI and Automation, and he was awarded Global Top Voice in Tech in 2019. He is the author of the best-seller and first reference book on Intelligent Automation.
Lex Fridman, PhD
Lex Fridman, PhD, is a Russian-American computer scientist, podcaster, and artificial intelligence research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on computer vision and autonomous vehicle systems, among other areas of specialty. Fridman also hosts the “Lex Fridman Podcast,” a popular podcast and YouTube series.
Mo Gawdat, MBA
Mohammad “Mo” Gawdat is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He is the former chief business officer for Google X and the author of the bestselling business books covering life and technology: Solve for Happy and Scary Smart – The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World. His premise is critical – “Humans design the algorithms that define the way that AI works, and the processed information reflects an imperfect world.”
Aneesh Chopra, MPP
Aneesh Chopra is the Chief Strategy Officer of Arcadia, a health data platform that acquired CareJourney, the company he co-founded in 2014. Aneesh served as the first United States White House Chief Technology Officer during the Obama Administration and authored “Innovative State: How New Technologies Can Transform Government.‘ When it comes to policy and smart tech applications, he’s at the forefront of the conversation.
Eric Horvitz, MD
Microsoft’s Chief Scientific Officer and an early AI champion for health and medicine going back many years, Dr. Eric Horvitz is among the founders and funders of Stanford’s 100-year longitudinal study of the impact of AI on Society. Dr. Horvitz is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world.
Andrej Karpathy, PhD
Andrej Karpathy was the senior director of AI at Tesla, where he led its computer vision team in the development of the Tesla Autopilot. He championed its neural network training, the science of “making it work, ” and deployment. His PhD focused on convolutional/recurrent neural networks and their applications in computer vision, natural language processing, and their intersection – his adviser was Fei-Fei Li at the Stanford Vision Lab, who also makes this list of 20 people to follow. He also did a stint at OpenAI.
Tom Lawry
Tom Lawry is a leading AI transformation advisor to health and medical leaders globally, a top keynote speaker, and best-selling author of Hacking Healthcare – How AI and the Intelligent Health Revolution Will Reboot an Ailing System. Now the managing director of Second Century Tech, he is a former Microsoft leader who served as National Director for AI for Health and Life Sciences, Director of Worldwide Health, and Director of Organizational Performance for the company’s first health incubator. Prior to Microsoft, he was Senior Director at GE Healthcare, the founder of two venture-backed healthcare software companies, and a health-system executive.
Fei-Fei Li, PhD
Dr. Fei-Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. She was the Director of Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018 and mentored others appearing on this Medika Life Top 20 list of AI voices to follow.
Berci Mesko, MD, PhD
Bertalan Meskó, PhD, is known as “The Medical Futurist” and the Director of The Medical Futurist Institute. He analyzes how science fiction technologies can become a reality in medicine and healthcare. Dr. Mesko’s writings are must-reads—he provides incredible practical knowledge on how AI will transform the health sector. He holds a PhD in genomics and is an Amazon Top 100 author. His book, “The Future of Medicine,” outlines his journey as a medical futurist.
Allie K. Miller
Allie K. Miller was the Global Head of Machine Learning Business Development for Startups and Venture Capital at Amazon (AWS), advising the world’s top machine learning researchers, founders, and investors. She was the youngest-ever woman to build an artificial intelligence product at IBM, spearheading product development across computer vision, conversation, data, and regulation for thousands of companies. Allie continues to explore how this technology will impact workflow.
Andrew Ng, PhD
Dr. Andrew Ng is a globally recognized leader in AI. He is the Founder of DeepLearning.AI, the Founder and CEO of Landing AI, the General Partner at AI Fund, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera, and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University’s Computer Science Department.
John Nosta
John Nosta is a cutting-edge thinker and speaker in the world of technology, science, medicine, and innovation. He is globally recognized among the foremost voices constantly pushing the envelope on how AI and ChatGPT will transform health settings and workflow. Nosta is a nonstop power thinker (and contrarian) and has more than 500 articles published on innovation topics. His writings on Psychology Today chronicle “The Cognitive Age.” John is someone who challenges the status quo. As a creative thinker; he’s also been the spark behind several multi-billion health products improving and saving lives.
Tam C. Nguyen
Tam Nguyen holds multiple appointments, including Associate Professor at Melbourne Medical School and Deputy Director of Research at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He has more than 20 years of experience in clinical trials, health and medical research, and research management, including tertiary teaching hospitals, medical research institutes, and universities across Australia. He is applying smart technologies to learn and engage faster. He is the co-editor of the recent book Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Springer).
Ziad Obermeyer, MD
Ziad Obermeyer, MD, is the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, researching the intersection of machine learning, medicine and health policy. Before his full-time career in emergency medicine, he consulted pharmaceutical and global health clients at McKinsey & Co. in New Jersey, Geneva, and Tokyo.
Brian Roemmele
Brian Roemmele is an author, scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker, and doer. Brian became an early adopter of AI and neural networks and pioneered Prompt Engineering technologies and techniques to understand and extract information from AI platforms. He’s also a bit of a pop icon, and his works range from smart tech to how to apply Pokémon for customer acquisition.
Stela Solar
Stela Solar is the Inaugural Director of Australia’s National AI Centre, hosted by CSIRO. The Centre’s mission is to accelerate positive AI adoption and innovation that benefits businesses and the community. Currently, Stela also serves as Co-chair of the Commonwealth AI Consortium.
Harold (Hal) Wolf III
Harold (Hal) Wolf is the president and CEO of HIMSS, a global advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology. If health-related smart technologies such as AI, ChatGPT, GenAI, and LLMs have a central home to discuss policies and implementation, it is HIMSS. Hal shepherds the world’s health information expert community, and his staff advances the science and policy championing implementation throughout the health ecosystem. Wolf and HIMSS are where theory meets action.
Spot a broken link, typo, forgotten degree, or name misspelled?
Oops! Apologies! While care has been taken in compiling this list and adding social media links, things go wrong: a name is misspelled, a link is broken, or an incorrect social media handle is listed. Please do get in touch to address typos, amendments, or omissions by reaching gil.bashe@medika.life.
Thanks in advance and be healthy!
