Seth Kahan’s Podcast
Grand Challenges represent the wicked problems that society faces—complex, persistent, and difficult to solve due to incomplete, contradictory, and ever-changing demands. Yet, addressing them is essential for humanity and life on Earth to survive and thrive. My work is dedicated to confronting these monumental issues.
These challenges are too vast for any single mind to fully comprehend or solve. They are multi-dimensional, with deep systemic roots that are reflected in legislation, policies, social behavior, and even individual thoughts and mindsets. These factors limit our ability to effectively address them.
However, there are models and frameworks I’ve developed to help organizations and activists collaborate in making tangible progress. These stem from my experience at the World Bank, where I’ve witnessed both the successes and failures of multinational efforts, and from my work with Grand Challenges in sectors that include maternal health in Kenya, earth science, finance, nursing, and mental health.
Seth Kahan’s Podcast
Agency, Accountability, and the Soul of Medicine
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In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Ehsan Samei, a Distinguished Professor of Radiology at Duke University, to explore the deep shifts occurring at the intersection of technology and patient care. We begin by examining the nature of agency and accountability, with Ehsan positing that true agency requires an entity to not only act but to take responsibility for its actions. This opens a vital discussion on the black box nature of AI, where the lack of human-like sensory processing makes the internal logic of these models nearly impossible to explain to a human observer.
Our conversation moves into the concept of Integrated Intelligence, a fusion where human discernment defines the problems while AI provides the statistical power to solve them. Ehsan highlights the role of Digital Twins as a critical tool in this evolution, acting as a structured, explainable layer that allows scientists to model human biology with a level of transparency that raw data alone cannot provide. We discuss how these technologies rebundle skills, aiming to enhance medical accuracy without losing the human intuition that defines healthcare.
We conclude on a philosophical note, emphasizing that the practice of medicine is, at its heart, a virtue rather than just a technical task. While AI can process vast amounts of data and provide mechanical answers, it lacks skin in the game and the qualitative depth of the human soul. Ehsan argues that the future of healthcare depends on our ability to embrace these technological progeny as our own, while fiercely protecting the mysterious, qualitative elements that give human life its meaning.
Our Discussion Points:
- Defining Agency: The critical distinction between an entity that can act and one that can be held responsible.
- The Explainability Gap: Why judging AI solely by its output is dangerous when the internal processing remains a black box.
- Integrated Intelligence: Moving toward a model where humans define medical needs and AI provides the technical support.
- The Utility of Digital Twins: Using simulated human models to provide a structured and explainable scientific framework for AI.
- De-skilling and Re-skilling: Navigating the risk of losing essential human skills, much like the loss of fire-making skills after the invention of matches.
- Medicine as a Virtue: Why the soul of patient care requires a human presence that no algorithm can replicate.
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