Recode is reporting that the Washington Post is using AI to generate stories for the Rio Olympics. Basic stat generation, of course. But it serves as a nice example of how technology is replacing the rote.

This is a recurring theme in health care. The the fear of robots replacing doctors is has made for some of Twitter’s most tempting link bait.

The take home with the Washington Post rests with the suggestion that AI-generated content will free up journalists for more meaningful work. This should be our perspective in medicine. We should seize the opportunities that come with our own redefinition rather than the primitive fear of being marginalized. And as Brian Christian suggested in The Most Human Human, if a computer can do it than it was never really a human task to begin with.

Fearing obsolescence is a rookies mistake. And those who fear obsolescence are ones most likely to become obsolete.