Robotic Doctors, AI-Powered Segmentation, and Hand-Eye Coordination

Welcome to wake up with AI, the podcast where human powered meets AI assisted. Join your hosts, Chris Carillon, Niko Lofakas, and George b Thomas as we dive deep into the world of artificial intelligence. From the latest AI news to cutting edge tools and skill sets, we are here to help business owners, marketers, and everyday individuals unlock their full potential with the power of AI. Let's get started.

Good morning. Happy Monday. It is October 21st 2024 here with George and Nico asking people to wake up with AI. How are you fellas doing this morning?

Doing doing good this morning. Little remote today, but, doing good, nevertheless.

I'll be honest. I'm just trying to

Wake up.

That's all I'm trying to do this morning. It's Monday. I'm sort of in one of those moods where could it still be Sunday, please? I'm churning. I need to get some caffeine up in there, and then we'll be good to go, bro.

That's exactly why we're on the schedule, because it's not Sunday. It's Monday. It's moving forward whether we want it to be or not, and we're here to help everybody else move forward, hopefully, along with it. Maybe a little bit behind it, but that's okay. Starting off, it's been quiet on the western front this morning inside of our Slack channel.

So very curious as to what Nico's bringing today.

It's probably dangerous.

It's not. It's not gonna be dangerous. It has been quiet, and I and I do I apologize for that, boys. It's been a busy weekend, so I haven't had quite as much time to put into posting things that I'd like to talk about or that I will end up talking about. But today, we're actually going to take a, a little bit of a turn over to the medical side of things.

And what I wanted to bring to people's attention is, I guess, just how far things are going on that side of the pond. So wanted to start with news that there is a new sort of system, if if anybody knows about surgical systems. There is a very advanced system that's called da Vinci, and you can think of it essentially like a surgical spider. It's like a robotic spider that kinda comes down over the patient, has all these different, you know, arms and does all these things. It's what's used for, minimally invasive surgeries.

Right? So that's where they, you know, just poke little holes in you, arms go in, do the work, Bob's your uncle, minimal damage, you know, fast recovery time. Well, those are are getting, you know, they're they're they're getting there. They're they're more advanced. When you look at the doctors, they're actually using video gaming as a means of training for using these bots.

And if you're using gaming as a means of controlling them and they use micro movement and they're sort of based off of doctor hand movement, that's something that you could probably record, monitor, and watch over time. You can collect the data on that, then you can use that as training data, and, well, you could you could probably make a a robotic doctor to do something like that. So Horizon is a company that is now trying to raise a series a fund, and what they're working on is a robotic eye doctor. And as odd as that may sound and as far fetched as it may be, and you might be sitting there thinking, there's no way there's no way I would ever let a robot near my eye. That's ridiculous.

That's that's way too sensitive. It's too close to me. I'm not gonna be able to do it. I I won't stand for it. Okay.

Well, I can all I can tell you is that I am eagerly waiting. Eagerly. I mean, I'd really, I can't wait. If I could find it in the States, I'd probably run over there. There is already one of these bots that is used for dentistry, and I'm not sure not everybody has to, but I'm not sure when the last time you heard a friend of yours talk about having to get their cap fixed and how that that whole crown procedure, how that whole thing goes, and it's, like, a 2 part thing, takes several hours, just insane amount of pain, all that.

Robot did it in 15 minutes.

And without bad breath.

In and out, 15 minutes.

Man.

I'm just you know, and that's how the news is gonna be today. I'm a leave that there, and I'm a walk away.

Well, I think I would love to see a video of the first interaction between the eye doctor and a human. 1, 2. Better 1, better 2. And the humans, they're like like, so does the robot as soon as I give a yes. Because I usually don't give a yes.

It's like, go back to 1. I think wait. No. Maybe 1. Does the robot just alright.

Prescription. They like number 1. Done. The other thing that comes to mind is, like, just being ready for, like, the things where mass hysteria could come from in terms of, like, very specific, like, one out of 1,000,000 use cases. Right?

Just around my eyes, like, all these super sensitive nerves, like, just one malfunction, like Yeah. Something really, really bad could happen. Right?

See but that's that's the thing is, like, that's the way I looked at it is we have this like, just that sentence in and of itself is like, yeah, just one wrong slip. And the thing is, the machine's on guided programming, so the odds of slipping is seriously minimal. Like, it's not going to free think itself and say, like, hey. You know what? Scalpel a little bit to the left.

It's not gonna be a big deal. Whereas a human and I hate to always be bringing this up, guys. I really do. But this is the differentiator when it comes to jobs of this nature. The robot's not tired.

It's not hungover. It didn't get into an argument the night before. It doesn't have a kid that's worried about a test that it's taking. It's not stressed out. It's never drunk.

It's not on drugs. It's never not up to snuff or doesn't know enough about what it is that it's about to do. It's always ready. It's always at the top of its game. That's it.

Those 2 things. It's always ready. It's always at the top of its game.

I didn't even have to go that far, but I will be honest. I went through a range. A range. First thing, precaffeinated, a range of emotions. Because when you first started to talk about this, I was that guy.

I was like, oh, hey. No. Not not near my eye. But then I was like, well, wait a second. What if the doctor sneezed?

What if somebody dropped a set of books behind the doctor and he got scared and he jumped? Like, you know, like, oh, oh, and I was like, well, shoot. A robot ain't gonna sneeze. I didn't even have to go as deep as you went. I like so there was just, like, no way.

And then I was like, oh, wait. Like, it will be very interesting to me because here's the other word that keeps coming up when whenever you started to dip into this medical side of things. My brain always goes to bedside manner, and I over index on that. Usually, it's good bedside manner. But, like, what if it's not good side?

Like, you know what I mean? And so it's like, are we gonna get used to not needing that because we can get things done faster, and we can get things done cheaper. Because, by the way, robot ain't got no rent to pay. Robot ain't got no Viper or no Camaro or no Lamborghini. Robot ain't in debt $500,000 and got a $3,000,000 home.

So, like, what happens to us not needing bedside manner because of the implications of all of oh, jeez.

Yeah. I mean, like, you bring up a a really good point because I've I've had friends that have had experience, and I know people who've had experience with malpractice and, like, related issues. That was something I didn't even really take into consideration at the time that I was making the list. But, yeah, you also have, I hate to say it, but, you know, we're we're sort of in that business too. Look.

Your doctor doesn't have all that cool stuff in their office just because they went out to the cool stuff doctor store and bought it. It's because somebody who sells a brand of pharmacology or tools or equipment or something came into their office, said, let me get 20 minutes of your time, and here's a pen, and here's a cup holder, and here's all this other stuff. Right? So there's also exterior influence that's not even related to the doctor's physical, you know, condition itself and how they take care of themselves. There's also external financial influence that might aid in in a decision that a doctor is gonna make.

There might be, oh, I don't know, big insurance decisions that come down from the top and say that's too costly a procedure. Well, not so much if all you gotta do is fire up a machine and flip a switch. Right? Now it's not that costly anymore. And, you know, I understand fully what you're talking about, Chris, but the one thing I'm seriously looking forward to is there's no way there's not at least another dozen people out in the planet that have the exact same eye condition I do.

I'm sure that they all have 12 pairs of amazing glasses. Give me one. I don't need Bob's guess. I shouldn't have to go to another human to guess what somebody else with my exact same condition might have. I should get the exact solution for my exact condition that the other 12 people have.

We should all be having the same solution as opposed to, well, my doctor got it right by, you know, whatever point this much. So, yeah, that's that's good. They they eyeballed it versus, you know, somebody else that maybe they have a better version, someone else has a worse who knows? Right? But at least when I look at the playing field as far as medical care goes, it's not just that everybody gets it.

It's not just that everybody can get it done. It's not just the lower cost. It's It's that everybody gets the same literal quality of care. And so the bedside manner, all I can say is I think I think we've talked about this before, but if we haven't, just a reminder, doctor GPT did way better at bedside manner than your average human.

I'll preface with, I 100% agree that this is where we need to go, and it will be a net positive. I'm just thinking of, like, it takes 2 to tango in these situations. And just like humans are really bad at prompting, you know, GPT online, I can only imagine some interactions in a dentist chair because I don't know if you guys have ever had the experience of going to an office where there's multiple rooms together. And I've, you know, pat myself on the back here, but they always tell tell me how awesome I am as a patient because I I grew up and I had, like, 8 fillings, like, before I was 10, and I was always there. So I was like, okay.

Whatever. Just get in there and do your do your thing. Meanwhile, you know, somebody in the next room over is, like, having a crisis when just they get close to their mouth. So I'm like, all those things you ran down for what the doctor or dentist wouldn't you wouldn't have to deal with, Will the AI will the robot be able to tell if I've been going through that stuff, like, the day before, if I'm super stressed that day and be able to evaluate? Are they really?

Like, is it really hurting?

Here's the thing. Like, my brain immediately goes to robot doctor knows your pulse, can understand how fast you're breathing, like, knows all the biometrics of, like, oh, shit. This person is stressed out. Beep bop boop. Right?

And all of a sudden, they go into, like, a different mode. A doctor's like, I just need to get this done because the next patient and and, again, doctors, I love you. Dentists, I love you too. You know what I'm saying here. Right?

There's just this they don't care about the next patient in 10 minutes. They just know doctor robot, by the way. Just I gotta do this thing and whatever it takes, like and I'm paying attention to the biometrics of this human and, like, oh, man.

Will be this is where there's gonna be moments. That's making me think in almost any practice where the true experts will still be able to rise up because there's I guarantee there's moments there where it's like, okay. This person's not gonna calm down. I need to to get this done. They're actually not in pain.

I see this happen all the time. I've got to, like you know, they're not listening, so we've gotta finish the procedure. There's no risk like they think there is. There's gonna be moments like that, I'm sure, and the people like, the humans that can kind of evaluate irrational versus rational and and be able to step forward. It's very hard for me to is that a place where humans will still be able to do differentiate themselves in those situations?

Even if it's, like, guiding, an AI version, like, doing the procedure. Like, nope. Just move forward. I understand she's freaking out, but, yeah, not real in this case. So just please continue the procedure.

I don't know.

It's it's interesting to me. There's definitely it's weird how when we have these conversations, my brain goes in about 32 different directions, and I wish that I could actually, like, segment those directions a little bit better. You know what those doctors are gonna have to continue to do, though? They're gonna have to continue to segment their customers. They're gonna have to segment their prospects and leads.

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I mean, it was, that was not bad. I think that it does actually fit in. Right?

Because it's like

it's it's

doctors gotta segment their audiences. I don't know.

Well, I think there's gonna be there's a ton of spots. HubSpot help not precluded where there is a space, especially as we think about, you know, offshoring and outsourcing and, like, paying humans less than what their value is just because we can. Hitting these cost value spots where people really, really need the help. They don't have the budget for whatever reason. Same applies to health care, especially especially health care.

And if this is a way to, like, understand that audience and then kinda push that in the right direction, I think that's like Niko said, like, it's super interesting to think about the kind of infrastructure that is probably at risk here. And if anybody's good at rising up, it's the pharma industry. But just the like, as soon as I found out that I could get a cheaper price if I start negotiating on a cash basis for, like, a a medical procedure, like an X-ray or something like that, I was just like, man. Like, I did not expect this to turn into a car dealership. Like, that all that stuff should go away if we're doing it through there.

Now at the same time, there'll be the top end of the audience that still wants to be able to, you know, probably pay for the human being or, you know, pay for the the early entry, you know, robot plus human with glasses on and, like, give me all my vitals real time so I can look at them throughout the whole procedure even though I'm still sleeping somehow. Right? There are people that are paid for that. So no, I think it's just like anywhere else, understanding your audience and which humans you're trying to, you know, engage with. It's important everywhere we look right now.

I wanna skip back to one thing that my brain won't let go about about this whole thing too that less about the doctors. Niko said using video games for learning purposes for these. And I thought about all of the kids, mine included, by the way, that are gamers, and I'm like, okay. Wait a minute. In the future, like, what skills have my kids actually been building and gamers been building that are gonna be needed in the future that they're gonna be, like, way supreme at?

But it was not like they were focused on, like, getting those skills. It's a happy accident of, like, they were gamers, and now all of a sudden the world needs all of these people that can do x, y, z at a, b, c rate with 17 buttons and a joystick. Like, wait a minute. What? Like, you know

Don't hate. Yeah. I'm just saying. Don't like hate.

Like, I suck at it because I'm an old fart, but still, like, you know, it's just interesting to think if there's gonna be something there that's never been there for that type of person who's used to looking at a screen, used to using a joystick or a keyboard in, like, a very fast, repetitive, like, way. Mhmm. Anyway.

So I know that we've kinda touched on it a little bit last week, and I've talked to you guys about it probably ad nauseam at this point, but my mind always goes to sci fi. It always goes to other people who are greater than myself, who've thought about these problems for a much longer amount of time and put together some rough ideas. And I'm just starting to see a lot of that come to fruition. So it's it's funny to me that, like, that you're looking at it, and it's the correct angle angle to look at it from where okay. I'm not really quite as adept at doing this stuff as even my kids might be.

And when it when what we're really talking about at the end of the day is hand eye coordination. Right? The ability to do something with your hands, but use your eyes to understand what it is that your hands are feeling. And moving forward from that, after having seen Blade Runner 2049, there's a scene where a child, who is now an adult, who is tasked with creating all of the dreams that all of these synthetic people, all the replicants have before they're born. And in this scene, she's using this device in her hands, and and it looks like a small ball in a sense, but it has some buttons on it that she's pressing as well.

And she's just kinda manipulating and turning this thing and turning dials and, you know, making little adjustments. And I thought to myself, like, that has got to be the most intuitive, but at the same time, creatively insane method of doing something, of being creative, is to just have it in the palm of your hands and be manipulating it in such a way that you're almost just fluidly watching your mind move. Like, you're not even it's not typing on a keyboard. You're not moving a mouse around on a screen. You're not even, like, gesturing your finger fingers around.

Your hands are just nice, neatly controlled, and they're just kind of working this thing. And then one day, I'm on Facebook, and I'm scrolling along. And lo and behold, here's somebody that came up with this device for using your PC that is pretty much the same thing that's made for both gaming and video editing. And it's this, like, almost 2 piece, you could call it keyboard mouse combination. And looking at it, I was just like, I don't even know where to begin.

For once, I I found myself a a bit like George, where it's like, yeah. I'm not even sure what that's for. Don't know how to use it. Wouldn't know where to start. But what I can tell you is kids are gonna know this thing back from forward.

I'm going to feel like a fool in 10 years, and I'm gonna go to, like, try to use something. And people are gonna be like, wow. You didn't know you're supposed to actually do it that way. What's wrong with you? I can definitely see the the evolution coming.

It's coming very, very quickly. I think the only advantage that we have is that in past times, the technology has taken almost as long as what I would call one technological generation. It should be about a decade. So, like, our grandparents barely understood the concept of email. Right?

Let alone how to send 1, how to manage it. Our parents understood email. They got as far as Facebook. They understand text messages. Now when it comes to memes and GIFs and things a little bit more advanced, alright, let's take it back a notch.

Right? Like, they can they can do YouTube, maybe, if it's a clip, and, like, they don't have to understand it, but they're not doing TikTok. They're not doing Instagram. They're not doing Snapchat. Like, there's a whole plethora there.

Right? And it kinda just keeps going like that through generations. And we're finally at this tech that is just rapidly evolving. So we kinda all have to keep up with it. So where I would have said, that that's why I thought it was so so interesting because where where it would normally be, we're all kind of falling off and, like, oh, our generation's not gonna know, but the next one will know, but the next one but we all have to know at the same time on this one.

It's the the whole bedrock is shifting. So it's almost like everybody has to learn how to swim.

Yeah. And we have

AI to help us all get on the same page.

Yep. It's funny because when I hear you say that, what I really hear is that everybody all at the same time needs to

Wake up.

That's that's what I hear. And, like, get moving. Don't rest on your laurels. Don't think it's gonna go away or it's gonna be okay. Like, how you come up with a method, a plan, keep up to swim.

Yeah. And it's cool. No. I think, like, as you're going through that that generational process, Niko, like, what came to mind is how it's moved. Like, for me, at least, the most times I feel old and disconnected is because there are words in the vernacular of the younger generations that I have no idea what they mean.

And I think it's going to keep moving in that direction where the only reason there is any disconnect is because of some social dynamic or social interaction that generation is having with each other. Even then, like, will it be easy to just ask the AI to tell us what's up, right, and pretend to be somebody from that generation. And because really what you were talk you were just talking about, like, different channels of communication through the years. I think that's where the risk is the less continues to increase. The less humans interact with each other, the less differentiation there will be.

So it's interesting to think about.

Yeah. I mean, it's it's a natural dynamic. Right? It is a natural duality that we end up having to cope with and deal with now moving forward. It's not just a matter of what, you know, do I want to or don't I?

And we've talked about the fact that this is just going to be an everyday part of your life in the same way that electricity is, So it's going to be that unavoidable. And that, you know, it shouldn't be. It really shouldn't. Like, I know that we kind of talk about it a lot, from an angle of, like, almost a versus angle, but it really doesn't need to be. It shouldn't be.

Should definitely not think of it that way. It is a partnership, a new partnership between, you know, technology and humanity, and it is only going to help us move forward. That's the whole point, is to help us move forward. It's to realize that we've reached this precipice that, intellectually, we wouldn't otherwise be able to get past as a species as a whole. But at the same time, that doesn't mean that we have to just give ourselves up to it or throw our hands in the air and say, oh, okay.

Well, because the the machine did this, there's no need for us, so it's all over with. No. It's only, again, it's only half of the puzzle. So don't worry about it. Don't you know, people really need to just stop stressing as much.

Right? You're still you're still at the end of the day, you're always going to go to sleep as a human. You just need to wake up with AI.

That's a wrap for this episode of wake up with AI. We hope that you feel a little more inspired, a little more informed, and a whole lot more excited about how AI can augment your life and business. Always remember that this journey is just the beginning and that we are right here with you every step of the way. If you love today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. You can also connect with us on social media to stay updated with all things AI.

Until next time. Stay curious, stay empowered, and wake up with AI.