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We respond to the Matters Arising article by Bernstein et al. 1 in response to our recent article “Assessing the impact of AI on physician decision-making for mental health treatment in primary care”. Their response highlights the significance of understanding the influence of AI—both unintended and underreported, as we found—on physician decision making, and a few notes regarding aspects of our study’s methodology. We welcome the opportunity to provide additional context to address their comments.
In a prior edition of this journal, Ryan and colleagues conducted an experiment to examine the role of AI on physician decision making. They observed that 67% of physicians who initially recommended against treatment, but later viewed AI output recommending treatment, changed their decision. This is an important study because it shows how AI can have a dramatic influence on doctors. Medico-legal consequences are considered.
