Running Out of Time to Get Medical AI Right: Capabilities, Risks, and the Potential Displacement of Physicians

Speaker: Sian Tsuei, UBC School of Population and Public Health

Rapid advances in AI are equipping clinical tools with increasingly powerful capabilities — while the risks remain largely unchecked. This talk draws on a recently published book, Medical AI: Promises and Perils at a Critical Moment (available here), to examine both the promise and the dangers of frontier AI systems in medicine. The talk will also describe why without a meaningful course correction, the current trajectory of the health system may be paving the way for AI to displace physicians in the not-so-distant future.

Sian H. Tsuei (MHSc, MD, PhD, CCFP) is a family physician and researcher. At UBC, he is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice and an Associate Faculty at the School of Population and Public Health. He holds a Visiting Scientist appointment at Harvard University. He completed his PhD in Population Health Sciences at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with a specialization in health systems. His research examines how AI systems may reshape health care delivery and organization.