Google announced last Tuesday that it developed a new artificial intelligence tool to help people identify skin conditions. Like any other symptom-checking tool, it’ll face questions over how accurately it can perform that task. But experts say it should also be scrutinized for how it influences people’s behavior: does it make them more likely to go to the doctor? Less likely?
These types of symptom-checking tools — which usually clarify that they can’t diagnose health conditions but can give people a read on what might be wrong — have proliferated over the past decade. Some have millions of users and are valued at tens of millions of dollars.
