It’s hard to go anywhere these days without hearing about artificial intelligence, or AI. This includes how it can be applied to medical fields including plastic surgery. In the case of plastic surgery, AI is more commonly used as a tool for prospective patients doing their research before pursuing a cosmetic surgery procedure.
But you can’t always trust what you see online. Especially in the case of unvetted AI sources. Today, our board-certified plastic surgeons wanted to discuss using AI when preparing for plastic surgery and why personal, hands-on expertise is still so essential for patients.
Beware of AI Hallucinations (Confident Mistakes)
AI hallucinations is a term used to describe false (but convincing) output from AI. Put simply, instances where AI essentially just makes something up due to an error in its programming or limit to its understanding of a specific context or subject.
These hallucinations are not intentional. They are simply a byproduct of AI models that work by predicting words and phrases based on collections of existing data. Fact-checking (like you would find with a traditional search engine) is simply not part of the process. Experts who study AI estimate that AI chatbots hallucinate content roughly 20–30% of the time, and that almost 50% of longer responses contain factual errors.
Use of Outdated Info
Plastic surgery is a constantly-evolving field. Advanced techniques and surgical technologies (like plastic surgery with ultrasound) are being developed and implemented all the time. AI models have fixed training cut-off dates, meaning that the responses people generate may not always be taking the newest and most vital information into account. For instance, any AI that was trained on data only up to 2022 would not be aware of the latest industry standards, breakthroughs, and FDA-approvals among other things.
Lack of Expert Oversight & Personal Touch
Plastic surgery is about people, and every patient is unique. Certain plastic surgery procedures and techniques that work wonders for one patient, may not be able to help another whatsoever.
As board-certified plastic surgeons, our experts specialize in using experience, specific context, knowhow, and feel to guide our patients to the most beneficial surgical path possible. Simply put, this kind of personal touch and specificity cannot be replaced.
Our Experts Are Here to Help
This isn’t to say that AI is useless or can’t be helpful in any way for plastic surgery patients. It’s just important to emphasize that this is simply one tool of many available, and there is no substitute for the knowledge and experience of a board-certified plastic surgeon.
For more information or to schedule a plastic surgery consultation with Dr. David Whiteman or Dr. Marc Klein, contact Southern Plastic Surgery today. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram for additional plastic surgery tips, news, and so much more.
