Hinton admits he was wrong about radiologists: cheaper scans meant more scans, not fewer jobs
burkov · x · 2026-09-07
"Godfather of AI" Geoffrey Hinton concedes his 2016 prediction that radiologists would stop reading scans within 5 years was wrong, giving two reasons: making scans cheaper and faster didn't reduce demand for radiologists — hospitals simply did more scans — and he admits he never really understood the job itself, having pictured it from one former student who mostly read scans in isolation. The AI part went roughly to plan; machines did get good at reading scans, but making one part of a job cheaper doesn't automatically eliminate it. Andrey Burkov quips Hinton will say the same about LLMs in 10 years.
Related event: AI Godfather Hinton Admits His Radiologist Prediction Was Wrong(4 posts)→
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