When humility becomes code: How AI is learning to say ‘I don’t know’

The Korea Times

When humility becomes code: How AI is learning to say ‘I don’t know’

Leo Anthony Celi, an intensive care doctor in Boston, is working to make artificial intelligence (AI) more humble. He works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, leads research at MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and teaches at Harvard Medical School. In a recent interview, he said, "Right now, we use AI as an oracle. We could use it as a coach." Preventable medical errors kill between 200,000 to 400,000 Americans every year. The range is wide because researchers disagree on the count. Johns Hopkins, in its widely cited 2016 estimate, put the figure above 250,000. AI was meant to bring that number down. ICU studies show the opposite. When a physician's instinct disagrees with AI, the physician tends to defer to AI, especially when it sounds certain. Researchers call this automation bias. Celi's team proposed an inversion. Don't make AI smarter. Make it more humble. Their framework, published in 2026 in the medical journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics, is called BODHI — Balanced, Open‑minded, Diagnostic, Humble, Inquisitive. The idea is simple. Before answeri

Go to News Site

Google Play

App Store