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.
Technology
News community around technology, social media platforms, information technology and governmental policy surrounding it.
What doesn't fit here?
The core of the story has to be technology focused.
- If article mentions "AI" in a sentence and then talks about business economics that doesn't make it tech news.
- Gaming is too many layers removed from technology. There are many dedicated communities that are a better fit for it.
- Transporation is too many layers removed from technology. EVs while use many cool technologies have many dedicated communities that are a better fit for it.
- Entertainment is too many layers removed from technology. While sometimes it can fit here, business or cultural aspects of it are a better fit for dedicated communities.
- Cybersecurity. While it heavily focuses on technology, most of the time it's too technical for most people who are not already invested in it. Should be posted in a dedicated communities unless it has broader connection to other tech areas.
Post guidelines
Title format
Post title should mirror the news source title. If you don't like the title of article, look for an alternative source instead of editorializing it.
URL format
Post URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
[Opinion] prefix
Opinion (op-ed) articles must use [Opinion] prefix before the title. Opinion articles refer to articles that their publisher doesn't explictly endorse.
Country prefix
Country prefix can be added to the title with a separator (|, :, etc.) if the news is from a local publisher who doesn't clearly mention the country.
Rules
1. English only
Title and associated content has to be in English.
2. Use original link
Post URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
3. Respectful communication
All communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. Inclusivity
Everyone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacks
Any kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangents
Stay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may apply
If something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.
Companion communities
!globalnews@lemmy.zip
!interestingshare@lemmy.zip
Icon attribution | Banner attribution
If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.
view the rest of the comments
Should urologists still train to detect diabetes by taste? We wouldn't want the complexity of modern medicine to stunt their growth. These quacks can't sniff piss with nearly the accuracy of Victorian doctors.
When a tool gets good enough, not using it is irresponsible. Sawing lumber by hand is a waste of time. Farmers today can't use scythes worth a damn. Programming in assembly is frivolous.
At what point do we stop practicing without the tool? How big can the difference be, and still be totally optional? It's not like these doctors lost or lacked the fundamentals. They're just rusty at doing things the old way. If the new way is simply better, good, that's progress.
It's true that if a tool is objectively better, then it makes little sense to not use it.
But LLMs aren't that good yet. There's a reason senior developers are complaining about vibecoding juniors; their code quality is often just bad. And when pressed, they often can't justify why their code is a certain way.
As long as experienced developers are able to do proper code review, the quality control is maintained. But a vibecoding developer isn't good at reviewing. And code review is an absolutely essential skill to have.
I see this at my company too. There's a handful of junior devs that have managed to be fairly productive with LLMs. And to the LLMs credit, the code is better than it was without it. But when I do code review on their stuff and ask them to explain something, I often get a nonsensical, AI-generated response. And that is a problem. These devs also don't do a lot of code review, if any, and when they do they often have very minor comments or none at all. Some just don't do any reviews, stating they're not confident approving code (which is honest, but also problematic of course).
I don't mind a junior dev, or any dev for that matter, using an LLM as an assistant. I do mind an LLM masquerading as a developer, using a junior dev as a meat puppet, if you get what I mean.
We're not talking about LLMs.
These doctors didn't ask ChatGPT "does this look like cancer." We're talking about domain-specific medical tools.
I was responding to a thread by RogueBananas who is clearly talking about LLMs as he drew a parallel with IT.
Are you sure? Check.
Where you jumped in is me, pointing out, repeatedly, that LLMs and IT have nothing to do with the actual article. Y'know, the doctors I keep mentioning? They're not decorative.
Hmm, seems I replied to the wrong root comment.
Regardless, the overall point still stands. These tools are great for assistance, but relying on them completely can cause problems. Even these tumor-spotting ML tools aren't perfect, and they too miss things. Combined with a doctor's skill this is fine, but if one begins replacing the other the net benefit will be lower.