Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond

Rate this book
AI is about to transform medicine. Here's what you need to know right now. ''The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the personal computer. It will change the way people work, learn, and communicate--and transform healthcare. But it must be managed carefully to ensure its benefits outweigh the risks. I'm encouraged to see this early exploration of the opportunities and responsibilities of AI in medicine.'' --Bill Gates Just months ago, millions of people were stunned by ChatGPT's amazing abilities -- and its bizarre hallucinations. But that was 2022. GPT-4 is now smarter, more accurate, with deeper technical knowledge. GPT-4 and its competitors and followers are on the verge of transforming medicine. But with lives on the line, you need to understand these technologies -- stat . What can they do? What can't they do -- yet ? What shouldn't they ever do? To decide, experience the cutting edge for yourself. Join three insiders who've had months of early access to GPT-4 as they reveal its momentous potential -- to improve diagnoses, summarize patient visits, streamline processes, accelerate research, and much more. You'll see real GPT-4 dialogues -- unrehearsed and unfiltered, brilliant and blundering alike -- all annotated with invaluable context, candid commentary, real risk insights, and up-to-the-minute takeaways. There has never been technology like this. Whether you're a physician, patient, healthcare leader, payer, policymaker, or investor, AI will profoundly impact you -- and it might make the difference between life or death. Be informed, be ready, and take charge -- with this book .

304 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 2023

287 people are currently reading
822 people want to read

About the author

Peter Lee

170 books4 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
149 (30%)
4 stars
194 (39%)
3 stars
106 (21%)
2 stars
33 (6%)
1 star
8 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for Jonathan.
19 reviews
May 28, 2023
Reads a bit like a 280-page ad for OpenAI and GPT-4, but very good overview of this technology’s potential and current limitations in medicine, written by experienced veterans who have had a lot of time to think about this.

Some notes:

- GPT-4 and LLMs like it will have a far-ranging impact on medicine --> lots of amazing examples in the book of how it can already be used today
- A helpful analogy: mobile phones and the internet democratized access to information; GPT-4 is democratizing access to intelligence
- For the foreseeable future, GPT-4 can’t (and shouldn’t) be used in medicine without direct human oversight
- GPT-4 is already quite good at reviewing itself and can be used as a reviewer for its own responses
- Despite how good it is, it’s incredibly hard to systematically evaluate GPT-4 for medicine for a ton of reasons - e.g. because its domain of expertise is so broad and because its answers to the same prompt change every time you prompt it
- Clinicians shouldn’t use this technology in medical cases that lie outside their ability to solve or verify —> if you can’t verify, then don’t trust the results
- LLMs that are developed for, or adapted, modified, or directed specifically toward medical purposes are likely to qualify as medical devices (and they will likely be regulated as such)
- We’re currently in a “Wild West” in terms of AI regulation and LLMs; hopefully, there will be no incidents involving morbidity or mortality, and we’ll be able to learn from the “embarrassing incidents” (quoted from expert in book) that do occur
- There WILL be newer and more powerful tools; the pace of new AI model deployments will undoubtedly continue to accelerate --> whatever assumptions we have about the limitations of AI today are unlikely to hold up tomorrow

Favorite quotes:

“Let us not be seduced by our own creations, nor allow their allure to blind us to our moral compass.”

“[W]e must come to grips with the fact that GPT-4 represents a technological phase change. Previously, general intelligence was frozen inside human brains, and now it has melted into water and can flow everywhere.”
183 reviews
May 4, 2023
This is the best account I’ve found so far of what will really change in medicine, authored by experienced veterans who’ve had the time to really think about this.

In short they really buy into it, but I continue to have a hard time actually piercing through the illusion of self that Large Language Models seem to have. What actually is “I” in their responses, particularly as we don’t know the data it is trained on? The authors try to get GPT-4 to say what it could be used for, and so of course it generates plausible text of which there is a lot n here, which I slightly tuned out of towards the end, and some confusing nomenclature around davinci, chatGPT and gpt-4 (which one should a patient use? If you Google it they all come out) which is further padded with the tendency to recommend double checking GPT-4 by running another session in parallel, which seems very non-Steve Jobsian.
Profile Image for Nilesh Jasani.
1,151 reviews221 followers
July 11, 2023
The AI Revolution is an engaging and thought-provoking read, offering insightful examples that highlight the potential of artificial intelligence. The authors eloquently capture the essence of their argument in the middle of the book:

"Medicine traditionally refers to a sacred relationship between a doctor and a patient — a twosome, a dyad. "And I'm proposing that now we move to a triad," he said, with an AI entity like GPT-4 as the third leg of that triangle.

Today's LLMs are likely to appear elementary in a few years. As impressive as their feats are, as shown in the book, they still have much to demonstrate in order to surpass the expertise of our finest medical professionals indefinitely. Even if they claim to outperform the average practitioner, it is natural for many of us to harbor reservations and doubt their abilities, regardless of the irrationality behind such sentiments. Nevertheless, the book masterfully showcases the incredible potential of integrating GPT as the third agent in the doctor-patient dynamic. From aiding in diagnosis, documentation, and explanations to serving as an error handler, facilitating patient-doctor communication, optimizing planning, and enhancing overall efficiency—the possibilities are vast. Furthermore, the book hints at the future prospects of LLMs as long-term record-keepers and even contributors to drug discovery, further emphasizing their potential value.

It is pretty likely that healthcare and pharmaceuticals emerge as generative AI's most significant application sectors over time.
Profile Image for Andrei Gavrila.
82 reviews3 followers
April 18, 2023
I really liked it. Not only does it shed light on applications of GPT in medicine but it does it in a smooth, easy to read and understand way.

This book is great for all audiences and people that never heard of GPT or only know very little about it will be able to understand how impactful it can be for us all.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
89 reviews2 followers
May 28, 2023
Finished in one sitting. Wanted to love it but disappointed by lack of explaining llm and gpt until last 1/3 of book. No credence or respect to anyone other than Microsoft for creating ai in a vacuum. Spent 60% of the book displaying gpt responses.
Good nuggets inside it.
Profile Image for Bryan.
667 reviews24 followers
February 22, 2024
Caveat: I work with the author. I also work in the field of artificial intelligence.

This book describes the problems and decisions that medical professionals will have with these advanced generative models. The models will make mistakes. That will likely lead to some bad outcomes. The models will also get a lot of things correct.

One of the thought exercises in the book is about people who have no access to health care professionals. A person could get answers from a generative model, that could actually save their life. The models will most likely save more lives than it costs. But where is the line of how many mistakes it can make. So, should we let people use them? Some of these questions are very difficult to answer. Do we feel better if someone dies because a human doctor made a mistake, than if an AI model makes a mistake? If the model saves 99/100 people and the human saves 97/100, why does is still seem wrong to use the model because the one person may not have died. This book will make you think.

The authors make a pretty compelling case for these models to be accessible to people who would otherwise not have any access to medical advice. But it is scary to implement something like that.
Profile Image for Aluniuha.
151 reviews1 follower
September 15, 2024
Zdecydowanie ważna pozycja dla osób z branży medycznej. Zawiera dużo informacji jak można korzystać z GPT-4 i jakie są jego możliwości i ograniczenia. Przestrzega przed opieraniem się na odpowiedziach podanych przez AI i przypomina, że to my, jako eksperci, powinniśmy weryfikować jego odpowiedzi. Dobrze się czyta, miejscami tro je się przeciąga, ale to wynika z moich preferencji i zainteresowań.
Profile Image for Sophia.
272 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2024
Fascinating book on AI and what potential it holds for our lives especially in healthcare. I love sci-fi and many of the concepts are happening for real in our lives now. Also a bit scary if not used for the betterment of humanity.
1 review
May 21, 2023
Engaging, informative, easily understandable, must-read

To borrow a term from Carey Goldberg’s smart, lively prologue about GPT-4’s impact on a fictional but totally plausible physician, this book makes me feel…augmented, at least when it comes to learning about AI and medicine. It’s a nuanced guide to the possibilities, practicalities and potential pitfalls of the revolution that is already upon us. Can GPT-4 really empathize w humans? Read this book and find out.
Profile Image for Scott Pearson.
782 reviews36 followers
June 25, 2024
Artificial Intelligence is changing the way information is handled worldwide. The advances pose particular opportunities for medicine, where descriptive texts are the norm, research expands knowledge exponentially, and paperwork is a main product. Of course, new dangers uncover themselves, too. Will AI merely exacerbate existing health inequities, or will it provide better quality care for anyone with a smartphone worldwide? These subjects need to be thought through in order to secure positive outcomes. These authors, with a foot in medicine and a foot in computing, pen a fascinating early take on these dilemmas for us to ponder.

Early on, businesses have capitalized on AI opportunities the most, with AI-driven chat bots popping up everywhere. Because Chat GPT-4 has been trained extensively on medical research, they actually can serve as great healthcare assistants. They are wrong sometimes – and sometimes widely wrong. Yet Chat GPT-4 passes medical licensing exams better than most physicians, so it might already outperform most doctors, especially with rare diseases. This book discusses these ethical dilemmas so that everyone can access this discussion. It also glances at how doctors could improve the quality of patient experience by getting AI to do paperwork.

Inspired and curious, I typed in my medical history about a condition that I’m exploring with my physician. The workup I was given was far more thorough than anything even my excellent physician could offer. It had me, a biomedical software developer, dreaming of how to leverage the technology for the ultimate good of patients. It can even modify the sentence structure and language to address those at lower literacy levels instead of science geeks like myself.

As with any new technology, challenges await, yet at this juncture, the opportunities seem great. Workers in the healthcare sector and healthcare users in the general public might be able to leverage AI for good if it’s addressed properly. Frankly, it’s a matter of survival for both parties. This book can help readers think through these thorny issues at an early gate so that they – we – won’t be left behind. AI can prove to be an effective helper, but like anything in life, wisdom comes from sorting out the good from the bad. This book definitely equipped me to do just that.
Profile Image for Daniel Mosby.
89 reviews
March 8, 2025
Given this is an AI book, I used AI to help me summarise my learning points from the highlights I made as I was going along. This book is just under 2 years old, but you can still tell when reading it that things are advancing so quickly even this book is out of date already, albeit only in some limited areas. I'd say it's still worth a read for anyone interested in the intersection of AI and medicine.

Medicine demands a partnership between humans and AI rather than AI replacing medical professionals. AI should support healthcare providers, not act autonomously in critical decision-making.

The medical training of AI systems matters, just like the training of human doctors.
The scope of AI’s domain expertise is difficult to fully evaluate, creating risks in medical decision-making.
AI should embody principles like transparency, accountability, and collaboration to be used responsibly.

AI can help alleviate the paperwork overload that consumes nearly half of doctors’ and nurses’ time, contributing to burnout.

AI-generated medical information must be verified before use. A separate AI session can be used for error-checking, but final validation should always involve a human. Human-in-the-loop oversight is mandatory for high-risk applications.

GPT-4 is better at reviewing text than creating it. It can translate between health data standards, advancing interoperability in healthcare. AI is prone to hallucinations and subtle errors, making it unreliable for autonomous medical decision-making.

AI lacks true moral reasoning—it cannot reliably navigate ethical dilemmas. AI systems trained solely on language models struggle with decision-making in morally loaded situations.

Low-risk AI uses (e.g., writing insurance letters) require minimal oversight. High-risk AI applications affecting patient care must have mandated human review and liability.

AI should be viewed as a “cognitive forklift”—lifting the heavy mental workload so humans can focus on complex, uniquely human tasks. AI will not be risk-free, but neither are common medical tools like aspirin.
Profile Image for Brad.
1,204 reviews
August 5, 2023
A pretty quick read recommended by someone at work as we pilot use of GPT and brainstorm ways to appropriately use an LLM in medicine. So far it's looking helpful for non-clinicians as we (understandably) haven't let any LLM loose on patient data. I'm more interested in the clinical side and look forward to seeing what we can do as augmented clinicians.

Fully agree that--at least in current state of LLM and other AI--there needs to be a human in the loop to monitor and sanity check outputs. Unfortunately this very factor of not being able to fully trust the tool is one of the things that most hampers it in this field.

Lee and his colleagues are pretty rosy about how much AI can and will do. Also, they seem really impressed by things that seem dumb to me--the analysis of how the doctor did in a visit and where they could improve? That's 1st year med school stuff. I agree more with the "will" side than the "can" side, but perhaps that's because we haven't been able to do any clinical augmenting yet? Several parts of the book also read like an advertisement for GPT-4 rather than LLMs more broadly, which makes sense given that at least one of the authors works for Microsoft.

They anthropomorphized the heck out of GPT-4. I guess it kind of makes sense given the conversational nature of interfacing with GPT, but it seemed weird. It's a machine--it doesn't need pleases and thank yous. *eye roll*

Major concerns about some of the errors that GPT-4 made and that LLMs in general can make. Sometimes doing math wrong, confabulations / hallucinations. Needs a lot of work and and solving before this is ready for the big time. I do agree with what the authors state near the end, that we need to engage *now* in figuring out how to use and regulate this tool, but it's moving quickly.

Rating: G, maybe PG because of some discussions of health issues?
Profile Image for Richard.
234 reviews12 followers
April 29, 2023
The authors of this book should really be editors, since much of the text is taken verbatim from interactions with GPT-4. That's not necessarily a criticism -- a subject like this begs for specific examples. A book that describes how to use Excel, say, or some programming language, will consist mainly of text directly output from the computer.

But they go a little too far when, for example, in Chapter 9 ("Safety First") they simply create two personas and ask GPT-4 to generate a discussion. The results are interesting and provocative, but I left feeling, well, like why did I need the authors for this? Wouldn't I be better off just asking GPT-4 these questions myself?

That question is a good microcosm of the whole issue of using GPT-4 in medicine. Did I really need these authors to go to the trouble of making a book? That's eerily similar to the question of do I really need a doctor to tell me that these symptoms are congenital adrenal hyperplasia (one of the GPT-4 generated cases they present). How much will I really need doctors now that I have GPT4? Editors after all are useful, to help direct our thoughts in a particular, useful direction. Maybe in the future we'll think the same of doctors.

If you want a good summary of how GPT-4 will change medicine, a more concise summary is in the one hour YouTube talk by Peter Lee: Emergence of General AI for Medicine.
35 reviews
January 12, 2025
This is techno-optimism at best, and at worst is a poorly written advertisement for OpenAI.

To their credit, they do acknowledge some of the shortcomings of LLMs, even if they downplay them, and even if they claim that GPT-4 is not "just a large language model". But even their discussion of GPT's shortcomings sounds like "AI makes dangerous and concerning mistakes in medicine. On that point, we queried GPT-4: ..."

This book also suffers from having several authors. These authors have a wide range of opinions and stances on the topic discussed in this book, and it is hard to keep track of all the different voices. Peter's chapters, for example, seem to argue that GPT-4 is a conscious being that is capable of understanding and reasoning. He is excited about his "relationship" with this language model, and sings its praises profusely. I suggest you skip Peter's chapters, by the way. But "Zak" is much more reserved, and even makes tongue-in-cheek comments about Peter's enthusiasm. All of this causes this book to be inconsistent and confused.

All around, I might have given this two stars if it weren't for the continual recurrence of chapters authored by Peter. Anyone who has been on the internet in the past five years has seen random people get excited about AI. We've seen people post their conversations with a chatbot, and yes, we agree that it's cool. But if you don't have anything else to add to the conversation, why write a book?
Profile Image for TK.
98 reviews86 followers
November 10, 2024
It depicts insightful ideas on how technologies like GPT-4, and similar ones, can revolutionize the healthcare and medicine ecosystem. It also provides important negative implications, especially in a consequent field such as healthcare. Even though it felt like an ad for chatgpt, I understand how this kind of technology can have a significant impact on people's health. It would feel incomplete if I had not read Deep Medicine by Eric Topol. Both together picture a pretty concrete overview of what we have ahead of us for the healthcare ecosystem going forward. There was a tiny chapter on the use of this technology in science, but I missed more ideas on this, especially in the intersection of life science, medicine, and AI, and how it's and can contribute in the future.
Profile Image for Asya.
38 reviews
August 14, 2023
I don’t get a single high rating for this book. It doesn’t properly introduce or really explain what LLMs are, and how GPT4 fits into the landscape. Nevertheless it is extremely focused on GPT4 and a bunch of Microsoft products. The chapters written by individual authors lack cohesion, are often redundant and random on insights. And on top of it most of the book is composed of prompts and GPT4 responses to them. Ok, you can get some ideas into how to engineer medically relevant prompts… and some basic thinking on applications and ‘dangers’ of GPT4 in medicine but this is not a book to get an objective introduction into this exciting topic.
Profile Image for Richard.
Author 3 books12 followers
August 17, 2023
A VP for Research at Microsoft, a Harvard Medical School Bioinformatics guru, and a medical journalist were given early access to what we now call ChatGPT-4. The result is cautious amazement at what is possible. There are long sections showing ChatGPT output, which is a bit tiresome, but you'd have to include it if no-one had seen this before. Will this technology revolutionise health care? Well, what a future we might have if (if) it can, but no-one knows how to tell which output to trust and which not to. But, in the other corner, if you're in that 50% of the planet with no health care provision, doesn't this make a huge difference?
Profile Image for Martyn Perry.
Author 10 books6 followers
February 14, 2024
The many examples of GPT-4 interactions which dominate this book really do bring to life the amazing potential and risks of AI in healthcare.

At times they’re a little repetitive or long-winded, certainly towards the latter stages of the book, but they’re all necessary to demonstrate just what can be achieved by the AI of today, and to anticipate what the AI of tomorrow could feasibly achieve.

Recommended?:
This is a fantastic book, readable and fascinating, and very up to date with the latest features of GPT-4. It’s a significant achievement, and a useful reference for those working in digital health to understand the art of the possible, and the scale of the risks.
Profile Image for Marcus Goncalves.
768 reviews6 followers
March 13, 2024
The book offers a solid overview of how Large Language Models like ChatGPT might influence healthcare, focusing on enhancing access, reducing administrative tasks, and providing real-time assistance and information to medical professionals and patients. While it explores the potential benefits extensively, it doesn't delve into the technical or philosophical aspects deeply. A significant portion, including hypothetical dialogues on legislation and usage, was generated by ChatGPT, which detracts from its depth. Despite this, it effectively highlights the need for prompt and careful legislative action to harness these technologies' benefits in healthcare.
Profile Image for Andrew Halterman.
72 reviews1 follower
September 23, 2024
A thought provoking book on the benefits and risks using generative AI in medicine. It’s not too hard to imagine inviting generative AI to the table for tasks that present comparatively low risk to patients. It’s the high-risk tasks that are truly intriguing: diagnosis, medical discovery, patient and provider mental and emotional support.

This book contains the best summary of generative AI’s potential contributions to medicine. It provides a very optimistic viewpoint that I think is influenced by a great deal of expertise and also by Peter Lee’s position at Microsoft. Recognizing this, I recommend this book to anyone interested in the intersection of medicine and generative AI.
52 reviews
Read
October 26, 2023
This book will quickly become out of date given how fast the field is changing. That said, I really appreciated a more comprehensive review of current state as well as considerations that will impact the future than I have been able to find anywhere else. Many in my network have read and recommended this book and I consider it required reading if you are involved in data and analytics in healthcare.
Profile Image for Christine.
85 reviews
June 7, 2024
At the core of medicine is MD-PATIENT dynamic. With dispensing of advice/treatment/procedures, patients do their own processing and healing. Without AI taking any liability for this practice, it will NOT revolutionize how patients are treated at the bedside. This book is Microsoft peddling a product that NO ONE understands completely without taking responsibility for potential security, reliability and privacy issues. It is interesting to see how tech companies want to solve medical problems with tech products....... and brand the skeptics as dinosaurs.
Profile Image for 逸文.
15 reviews1 follower
February 15, 2025
I read it in Chinese version.
The book delves into the potential applications of AI in healthcare, from improving diagnoses and summarizing patient visits to streamlining processes and accelerating research.

One of the standout aspects of the book is its balanced approach to discussing both the incredible potential and the ethical considerations of AI in medicine. The authors, with their diverse backgrounds in computer science, medicine, and journalism, provide a comprehensive view of how AI can democratize access to intelligence, much like how mobile phones and the internet democratized access to information1.

The book also includes real GPT-4 dialogues, annotated with context and commentary, which offer readers a glimpse into the technology's capabilities and limitations. This hands-on approach helps readers understand the practical implications of AI in a medical setting.

Overall, "The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond" is a thought-provoking read that encourages readers to consider the opportunities and responsibilities that come with the integration of AI into healthcare. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the future of medicine and the role of technology in improving patient care.
Profile Image for Shreyas.
48 reviews
February 15, 2025
This is a great book that dives into the capabilities and potential of GPT-4 in the healthcare workspace, but becomes repetitive at times. The variance in language and technicality is noticeable between the authors and leads to an uneven reading experience. The AI prompts throughout the book offer great insight on what GPT is capable of but can be tiring to read at times. Overall, still a solid read about a new and emerging technology that’s an exciting read.
27 reviews
November 21, 2023
Very solid short read on potential applications of AI in medicine in the future safety/ethical dilemmas within incorporating LLMs/AI in medicine. Would recommend reading to get excited about future use cases to better understand the technology.
Most of the book and applicability will become outdated within a year .
26 reviews
March 2, 2024
Overall great summary of areas where LLM can be useful to advance science and medicine. Parts of it felt like marketing material for GPT4 with some emphasis on limitations. Although book did a good job of highlighting how LLM work but still unsure what data is used to train these systems and can it extend already worse misinformation crisis we are facing is a mystery.
72 reviews1 follower
October 12, 2023
Finally! Embrace, collaborate, and relief! AI holds great promise of cognitive burden relief and creates opportunities to enable clinicians get back to bedside and do what we are trained to do! I’m excited and cautious for what this partnership holds!
Profile Image for Walter D Dixon.
1 review1 follower
Read
April 7, 2024
Highly recommended to any health care provider!

I had just finished a book general AI when I discovered this book. First two thirds was very interesting but the end fell flat. Overall, worth reading, but.I would skip last couple of chapters, and good directly to epilogue.
Profile Image for Özgür.
117 reviews3 followers
May 20, 2023
This is a light "sparks of AGI" paper in Medical domain in book form.
Could have been a blogpost.
2 reviews
October 7, 2023
This books is primarily a PR campaign proselytising chatgpt's abilities written by people working for companies that profit from chatgpt
Poor writing style
Shallow at its best
Not so useful
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.