RFK Jr. thinks AI will free us from the “tyranny” of medical facts, expertise

小罗伯特·肯尼迪认为人工智能将使我们摆脱医学事实和专业知识的“暴政”

At a Make America Healthy Again event Tuesday, anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy opened a “fireside chat” with Vice President JD Vance on the topic of artificial intelligence. While MAHA generally coalesces around things like healthy lifestyles and mistrust of drugmakers, Kennedy quickly turned to extolling the potential of artificial intelligence, surprising Vance, who said he was expecting to discuss “weight loss and acid, not AI.”

周二，在“让美国再次健康”（MAHA）活动上，反疫苗立场的卫生部长小罗伯特·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy）与副总统万斯（JD Vance）就人工智能话题展开了一场“炉边谈话”。尽管MAHA通常围绕健康生活方式和对制药商的不信任等议题展开，但肯尼迪很快转而大肆赞扬人工智能的潜力，这让万斯感到惊讶，万斯表示他原本以为要讨论的是“减肥和迷幻药，而不是人工智能”。

Kennedy boasted that the Trump administration is “making it easy for every American to use AI,” which he claimed would free us from the “medical tyranny” of doctors and health experts. He suggested Americans should start using AI to get second opinions about medical recommendations, saying AI is “better informed than any doctor in the country.” He also suggested that the technology would confirm his misinformation about vaccines and contrarian views on public health guidance. “We’re never, ever again going to be able to be dominated by public officials who tell us trust the experts, because every American will be able to check their own medical advice,” Kennedy said.

肯尼迪吹嘘称，特朗普政府正在“让每个美国人都能轻松使用人工智能”，他声称这将使我们摆脱医生和卫生专家的“医学暴政”。他建议美国人应该开始使用人工智能来获取医疗建议的第二意见，并称人工智能“比全国任何医生都更博学”。他还暗示这项技术将证实他关于疫苗的错误信息以及对公共卫生指导的异见。肯尼迪说：“我们再也不会被那些告诉我们要相信专家的公职人员所支配了，因为每个美国人都将能够核实自己的医疗建议。”

Kennedy, who has no medical, scientific, or public health experience, then laid out specific examples in which he suggested AI would contradict health and medical experts and vindicate his own views: “If somebody tells you masks work, trust the experts, AI may tell you otherwise. If somebody tells you social distancing works, trust the experts, AI may correct that. And if somebody tells you that a vaccine will prevent transmission and infection—oh, you need to take it to protect your grandmother—AI may say it actually doesn’t do that.”

肯尼迪本人没有任何医学、科学或公共卫生经验，随后他列举了一些具体例子，暗示人工智能会反驳卫生和医学专家，并证明他自己的观点是正确的：“如果有人告诉你口罩有效，要相信专家，人工智能可能会告诉你并非如此。如果有人告诉你社交距离有效，要相信专家，人工智能可能会纠正这一点。如果有人告诉你疫苗可以预防传播和感染——哦，你需要接种它来保护你的祖母——人工智能可能会说它实际上并不能做到这一点。”

AI may contradict or “correct” experts, but does it actually? We checked—the answer was nope. When we asked Google’s Gemini: “Do masks work to prevent spread of infectious diseases?” The AI chatbot responded (including its emphasis): “Yes, masks work to reduce the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, operating primarily as physical barriers to outgoing and incoming infectious particles. Their real-world effectiveness depends heavily on mask quality, fit, and population-level adherence.” ChatGPT offered a similar answer, responding: “Yes. Masks can reduce the spread of some infectious diseases, particularly respiratory infections transmitted through droplets and aerosols.”

人工智能真的会反驳或“纠正”专家吗？我们进行了核实——答案是否定的。当我们问谷歌的Gemini：“口罩能有效预防传染病传播吗？”该人工智能聊天机器人回答道（包括其强调内容）：“是的，口罩可以减少呼吸道传染病的传播，主要作为进出传染性颗粒的物理屏障。其现实效果在很大程度上取决于口罩的质量、贴合度以及人群的依从性。”ChatGPT也给出了类似的回答：“是的。口罩可以减少某些传染病的传播，特别是通过飞沫和气溶胶传播的呼吸道感染。”

Chatbots provided similar affirmative answers to the question of whether social distancing works at preventing infectious diseases. “Yes, social distancing is an effective public health measure for reducing the transmission of infectious diseases, particularly respiratory pathogens,” Gemini responded. For the question, “Can vaccines prevent transmission and infection?” they provided almost identical results again. “Yes,” ChatGPT responded. “Vaccines can prevent both infection and transmission, but the degree of protection varies by vaccine and disease.” “Yes,” Gemini echoed, “vaccines can prevent both infection and transmission, but how effectively they do so depends on the specific vaccine and pathogen.”

对于社交距离是否能有效预防传染病的问题，聊天机器人也给出了类似的肯定回答。Gemini回应称：“是的，社交距离是减少传染病（特别是呼吸道病原体）传播的有效公共卫生措施。”对于“疫苗能预防传播和感染吗？”这一问题，它们再次给出了几乎相同的结果。ChatGPT回答：“是的。疫苗可以预防感染和传播，但保护程度因疫苗和疾病而异。”Gemini附和道：“是的，疫苗可以预防感染和传播，但其有效性取决于具体的疫苗和病原体。”

The answers are in line with the opinion of experts, including the caveats, knocking back Kennedy’s suggestion that AI would immediately play into his dangerous views. Still, they don’t back up Kennedy’s claim that they’re “better informed” than actual doctors. There are plenty of examples and data indicating that AI cannot be trusted over expert clinicians with health guidance—and can be dangerous when it is. Kennedy acknowledged that AI has “some downsides.” But he also quoted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as saying, “It would be malpractice for a doctor to make a diagnosis or to make a prescription without at least checking AI.”

这些回答与专家的意见一致，包括其中的注意事项，这反驳了肯尼迪关于人工智能会立即支持其危险观点的说法。不过，这些回答并不能支持肯尼迪声称人工智能比真正的医生“更博学”的说法。有大量的例子和数据表明，在健康指导方面，人工智能不能取代临床专家，且盲目信任人工智能可能会带来危险。肯尼迪承认人工智能有“一些缺点”。但他同时也引用了OpenAI首席执行官萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）的话称：“如果医生在没有至少查阅人工智能的情况下就做出诊断或开具处方，那将是医疗事故。”

Kennedy’s unexpected praise for AI makes more sense in the context of this specific MAHA event, which was held at the swanky Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC. It was sponsored, in part, by AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic. Contrary to MAHA’s previous mistrust of industry and opposition to corporate capture, other sponsors for the MAHA summit included Walmart and Grail, which The New York Times pointed out has an application for a cancer screening blood test pending at the Food and Drug Administration.

肯尼迪对人工智能的意外赞美，在这次特定的MAHA活动背景下就显得合乎情理了，该活动在华盛顿特区豪华的华尔道夫酒店举行。活动的部分赞助商包括人工智能公司OpenAI和Anthropic。与MAHA此前对行业的不信任和反对企业控制的立场相反，MAHA峰会的其他赞助商还包括沃尔玛和Grail公司。《纽约时报》指出，Grail公司有一项癌症筛查血液检测申请正在等待美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）的审批。

Bloomberg Law reported that sponsorship packages for the summit were being sold for up to $300,000, which included a guaranteed speaker slot, input into the panel makeup, and a private group dinner with Kennedy and Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agenda included executives from huge health insurance companies, UnitedHealth and Elevance. There were also drugmakers, a panel on psychedelics, and an executive from Hims & Hers, a direct-to-consumer telehealth company.

据彭博法律报道，此次峰会的赞助套餐售价高达30万美元，其中包括保证的演讲席位、对小组讨论构成的参与权，以及与肯尼迪和医疗保险与医疗补助服务中心（CMS）负责人穆罕默德·奥兹（Mehmet Oz）的私人团体晚宴。议程包括来自大型健康保险公司联合健康（UnitedHealth）和Elevance的高管。此外还有制药商、关于迷幻药的小组讨论，以及直接面向消费者的远程医疗公司Hims & Hers的一位高管。

The nature of the event has many MAHA leaders feeling betrayed. Robert Malone, a fringe scientist and previous Kennedy ally, blasted the event in a newsletter. “The incestuous nature of MAHA is becoming harder to ignore, and the conflicts of interest seem to multiply by the day,” Malone wrote. “MAHA was supposed to expose the revolving door between money, industry and government, not build its own.”

活动的性质让许多MAHA领导人感到被背叛。边缘科学家、肯尼迪的前盟友罗伯特·马龙（Robert Malone）在一份通讯中抨击了这次活动。马龙写道：“MAHA内部这种近亲繁殖的性质正变得越来越难以忽视，利益冲突似乎与日俱增。MAHA本应揭露金钱、行业和政府之间的旋转门，而不是建立自己的旋转门。”