The Use of AI in Post-Normal Medicine

The use of artificial intelligence in clinical decision-making poses philosophical challenges with regard to the democratization of science. In today’s clinical culture, patient engagement, a modality of science democratization, is increasingly vital for epistemic, ethical and pragmatical reasons. The traditional reliance on problem-solving strategies such as basic science, applied science, and professional consultation proves less effective in a medical age marked by uncertainties and risks that stem from rapid medical advances. Post-normal medicine calls for a methodology that integrates the perspectives of all stakeholders, and patient engagement seems to fulfill the requirements for such a methodology. This paper analyzes AI’s possible impacts on patient engagement. Serving as an intermediary between patients and healthcare experts, AI possesses the potential to enhance the epistemic, ethical and practical dimensions inherent to patient engagement. Nonetheless, AI also faces limits. Its weak and narrow nature makes it particularly fragile, and even threatening, when seeking to take control of medicine’s distinctive features as a science of design, features that happen to lie at the heart of patient engagement, such as intuition, empathy, and the consideration of individual circumstances.