The Gravity of Care: Navigating the Escalating Risks of AI in Healthcare

Artificial intelligence is already embedded across industries, often quietly and without clear accountability, but in healthcare, mistakes carry a uniquely human cost. This talk walks through an escalating series of AI use cases, beginning with low-risk administrative support and documentation tools, and progressing into clinical decision support where bias, drift, and over-reliance begin to shape patient outcomes. It then examines semi-autonomous and autonomous systems, such as treatment recommendations and adaptive hospital operations, where failures can cascade across patients and care teams, potentially leading to significant consequences. At the highest risk, we explore AI influencing triage, coverage decisions, population health, and mental health interventions, where opacity and lack of contestability introduce profound ethical, clinical, and societal risks. Rather than arguing against AI, this session provides a risk-aware framework to help healthcare leaders, clinicians, and technologists determine where AI is appropriate, where it must be constrained, and where deployment may be fundamentally unsafe without new safeguards.