Acemoglu questions AI's health promises: even a cancer cure won't hit the clinic fast
avicgoldfarb · x · 2026-10-05
MIT economist Daron Acemoglu poses his fourth question on AI: can large, rapid AI investments be justified by promised health benefits? He notes AI has so far yielded few gains in drug discovery, and even a breakthrough cure would face slow adoption in health systems — undercutting the argument that slowing AI harms humanity.
Economist Joshua Gans shares the thread, praising Acemoglu's willingness to ask whether curing cancer is "worth it" — a question only an economist could ask — while agreeing that AI companies systematically overstate how quickly medical AI would translate into real-world impact.
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