Opinion | RFK Jr. and JD Vance are dangerously wrong about AI and 'medical tyranny'

In an opinion piece, an emergency physician argues that claims by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and JD Vance about AI in medicine are misguided. The author describes a patient who entered symptoms into a large language model at home and was told it was likely a muscle strain. When the patient arrived at the emergency room days later, tests showed a serious heart attack that caused permanent heart muscle damage and chronic heart failure due to the delay. The writer supports access to personal medical records but rejects the idea that AI can replace clinicians or “correct” public health guidance like advice on Covid masks and vaccines. He cites the need for physical exams and life-saving testing, and also describes AI uses in the emergency department, including ambient note-taking, record summarization, and imaging assistance.