OPINION:
Look into the mirror and learn: Are you sick? NuraLogix debuted at CES 2024 in Las Vegas its Anura MagicMirror, an artificial intelligence-driven creation that scans the face and determines the blood flow and from there, spits out health information that ranges from heart rate to predictions of diabetes.
As with all-things-AI, the potential for harm is right around the corner from the intended good.
First, the supposed good: “NuraLogix says that the MagicMirror can provide health information that includes blood pressure, BMI, heart rate variability, pulse rate, breathing rate and facial skin age. It can provide risk assessments for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, fatty liver disease, and more, plus it offers assessments of mental stress and depression risk,” MacRumors.com wrote.
All it takes is a 30-second stare into the mirror.
OK. Sounds enticing. But speed and convenience are not the top words that come to mind when selecting a medical provider.
While important — albeit more important to some than to others — a fast diagnosis does not supplant an accurate diagnosis. Neither does convenience as the best skill and competence when it comes to choosing a doctor.
The larger red flag with AI in the medical field, though, is the privacy problem.
Individual privacy at the brick-and-mortar medical office has moved from the realm of honored and protected to the era of front-desk receptionists, usually young, usually inexperienced, often ignorant and rude, blasting out for all to hear a cringing patient’s health history and reason for visit, and then eye-rolling as the patient objects to the infringement of personal information.
That’s bad enough. Add to that the insistence on medical providers to gather Social Security numbers — never intended to be used in such a manner — as part of their intake forms; that’s bad enough, too. Then add to that the ongoing lawsuits across the country accusing hospitals of leaking patient information to Facebook — and the ongoing quest of Facebook/Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to obtain as much medical data as possible to sell to advertisers and to fuel his AI-tied medical research endeavors — and it’s clear: Privacies face perilous times.
Who knows where MagicMirror’s data will go?
“This [MagicMirror] actually started out of the University of Toronto when they were researching lie detection in children,” said NuraLogix marketing executive Lindsay Brennan, to Yahoo!News.
Interesting.
Interesting and alarming.
Anybody who says online or technologically collected information is safe and secure from hack and theft is lying. For America’s enemies, both foreign — think the Chinese Communist Party and the communist push for global dominance with technology — and domestic — and anti-MAGA, anti-Constitution, anti-liberty domestic — a database of facial scans would be one key way of keeping control of a population. With MagicMirror, one quick hack could lead to the scooping of potentially millions of Americans’ personal information, including facial images and private health records. That’s called a gold mine.
And in the meanwhile, an ever-thrifty health insurance industry could be capitalizing on the mainstreaming of MagicMirror and its predictive AI medical technology to base risk and coverage costs on what the data suggest. Very quickly could come a time when one condition for medical coverage is for individuals to stare into the mirror to see what diseases might come, and from that, insurers determine payment plans. Pre-screen for diabetes, high blood pressure and stress? Premiums will reflect accordingly.
AI is a fast-moving field that laws cannot fully constrain — that legislators will never fully contain. If anything demanded ethics and values, it’s artificial intelligence. This is the rock and hard place America faces: The United States must lead the world in technological developments, or else face a loss of global influence to the likes of communist China. But America must not lose its constitutional principles, including individualism, and a right to certain privacies, in the process.
The solution is not political. The solution is cultural — no, more than that, spiritual. America must have God at the helm of society, with godly governance based on a moral compass created by a higher power, or the nation will fall on its own quests for more, more, more — more ease, more convenience, more effortless living. America cannot have ungodly individuals leading the technology war against ungodly and secular nations, or America, adrift without God, will soon walk the same path of the ungodly — and sadly, communist — nations.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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