Siddhartha Mukherjee on the future of disease and diagnostics

Will artificial intelligence change what it means to be human? Cancer physician, researcher, and author Siddhartha Mukherjee joins the podcast to help rethink how we understand human health-and the ways AI can help. Sid talks about using AI to emancipate patients from disease as well as enhance patient health and wellbeing. He also discusses the risks that come along with incorporating AI into the medical world and how new technologies in medicine are ushering in a “new human.” Plus, Sid and Reid pose a thought exercise: if there were five spots on a spaceship about to be sent off to restart humanity, which professions would get those seats?
Read the transcript of this episode here.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.
Topics:
6:22 - Hellos and intros
8:50 - What excites Sid most about cancer research right now
13:08 - Bringing CAR T-cell therapy to India
15:48 - Reflections on AI and medicine
19:31 - Can we make something completely new in medicine with AI?
22:01 - Pi explains AlphaFold
23:35 - What risks are worth taking to accelerate science?
25:23 - The New Human
32:36 - Enhancement vs. Emancipation
39:43 - Sid’s thoughts on the meaning of humanity writ large
47:04 - Which professions should be on the spaceship that’s sent off to restart humanity?
54:18 - Rapidfire questions
The award-winning Possible podcast is back with a new season that sketches out the brightest version of the future-and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology-and, in particular, AI-is inspiring change and transforming the future.
This season, hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, are speaking with a new set of ambitious builders and deep thinkers about everything from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. These conversations also showcase another kind of guest: AI. Whether it's Inflection’s Pi, OpenAI’s ChatGPT or other AI tools, each episode will use AI to enhance and advance our discussion.
Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard, Sara Schleede, and Paloma Moreno Jimenez. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Ben Relles, Yan Ma, and Little Monster Media Company.

[@SonaliSenguptasengupso41]

Wonderful insights !!

[@bhvnraju8493]

Exciting conversation not only as Scientist but also as Humanist and Wishful thinker of mankind. Thanks a lot 🙏🙏🙏

[@casbah2100]

Excellent discussion, very deep thoughtful discussion. Permit me a different perspective. Regarding the "cacophony" that Reid and Siddhartha seem to think is bad, or at the least we need to leave the "bad voices" behind, this is the fatal hubris of Silicon Valley masters of the universe- the solipsistic world view that there are more valuable people and more valuable voices who are smarter and more noble- presumably the "good voices". And then there is the riff raff. This is a secular humanistic world view. History has shown us that this mindset leads to tyranny and misery. In recent times it has led to horrific censorship and flat out lying/ misinformation from easily provably falsehoods about Covid-19 vaccine efficacy and safety and the Hunter Biden laptop. For example, I believe the SVC's (Silicon Valley Crowd) logic or moral code in the later is best translated as 'well, even though we know in our heart of hearts that Hunter Biden's laptop was real and certainly had the evidence of malfeasance and criminality that the New York Post published, but the SVC had decided that Joe Biden must be elected at all costs because we (Facebook, Twitter, Google) are the "good voices" and Mr. Biden's election will be the "best" result for the people. (Specifically the best for the SVC and their bank accounts). The other approach to humanity is that all persons are valuable and every person has the 'spark of divinity' within them and that technology's goal should not be to dictate good voices and bad voices but to be a helpful tool that any person can use in what ever way suits them best. The Bible says only God is holy. God has given us the perfect moral code of love and honor to live by. I and Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger and Siddharth Mukherjee are flawed individuals and all of us should be striving to live an honorable life. Not the life that the good voices are dictating to us. We don't need an AI-enabled "good voices" crowd to 'tell us which way to go'. We need AI to help us follow the righteous path of where we already know we should go. Worship God. Love thy neighbor. Heal the sick. Comfort the oppressed.