I Won’t Use AI Smart Health Features for My Own Sake. Here’s Why | Global News Avenue

A few years ago, I firmly believed that I was going to die. Although (spoiler alert) I didn’t have, my severe health anxiety and ability to always think the worst case continues. But the increase in health tracking smart devices and new ways AI is trying to understand physical data have led me to make important decisions. In order to give me peace of mind, artificial intelligence needs to stay away from my personal health. After Samsung one month Unpackaged eventsI believe this more than ever. I will explain.

Sometime around 2016, my migraine lasted for a few weeks. My anxiety increased dramatically during this period due to concerns and when I finally called the NHS helpline in the UK and explained my various symptoms, they told me I needed to go to the nearest hospital and see it within 2 hours. “Go there with someone,” I remember clearly that they told me, “it’s faster than giving you an ambulance.”

This call confirmed my worst fear – death is coming.

It turns out that my fear of early demise is unfounded. The reason is actually a serious muscle strain, which is when photographing a friend’s wedding with multiple heavy cameras hanging all day. However, the hotline experts are just looking at the limited data I provide, so they (probably right) took a “safety is better than regret” approach and urged me to seek immediate medical care in case I’m really at risk.

I struggled with health anxiety most of my adult life, and while there was no real evidence to support them, plots like this gave me a lot of the ability to reach the absolute worst conclusion. Have my ears ringed? It must be a brain tumor. There is a jingle in my belly? Well, it’s better to keep my business organized.

Over the years I have learned to get along with it and while I still have ups and downs, I know better about what triggered me. I learned it alone no way Google My Symptoms. Because whatever my symptoms are, cancer is always Search may cause a possibility of searching. Medical sites, including the NHS’ own website, do not provide any comfort and usually only cause shocking panic attacks.

Sadly, I found that I had similar reactions to many health tracking tools. I loved my Apple Watch at first and my ability to read my heart rate during my workout was helpful. Then, I found that I was checking more and more frequencies all day long. Then the question climbed up: “Why is my heart rate high when I sit down? Is this normal? I’ll try again in 5 minutes.” When inevitably there is no difference (or worse), panic will naturally occur.

Whether tracking heart rate, blood oxygen levels or sleep scores, I’m obsessed with the “normal” range and any time my data is out of that range, I’ll immediately assume that this means I’m going to be there, then, and then. The more data these devices provide, the more things I want to worry about. I learned to put my worries in trouble and continue to use my smartwatch without having a lot of problems with my mental health (I have to actively use any heart-related features like ECG), but AI-based health tools scare me.

Samsung talked about its new Galaxy AI tools and how Google’s Gemini AI can help us in everyday life in January. Samsung Health’s algorithm will track your heart rate and notify you of changes as it fluctuates throughout the day. It will provide personalized insights on diet and exercise to help you with cardiovascular health and even ask AI agent questions related to your health.

For many people, this sounds like a good overall perspective for your health, but not for me. To me, it sounds like collecting and waving more data in front of me, forcing me to acknowledge it and create endless feedback of obsession, worrying and inevitably panic. But for me, AI issues are the biggest red flag. AI tools essentially have to make the “best guess” answer based on information publicly available online. Asking a question is really just a quick way to run a Google search, and as I found out, Google search health queries are not a great ending for me.

Just like the NHS phone operator who accidentally panicked about death, the AI-based health assistant will only provide answers based on limited information about me. Asking a question about my heart health can lead to all kinds of information, just like checking out the cause of why I have a headache on a health website. But it’s like a headache able Technically, it is a symptom of cancer, and it is also more likely to be a muscular distortion. Or I didn’t drink enough water. Or I need to move a little away from the screen. Or, until 2 a.m. to play Yakuza: Unlimited Wealth. Or a hundred other reasons, all of which are far more likely to be the culprit than the ones I have already determined.

But will AI give me an environment I don’t have to worry about and be obsessed with? Will provide me with all Potential is a way to try to give full understanding, but what if it is to worry about it? And, like Google’s AI overview how to tell people to eat glue on pizza, is the AI ​​Health tool just searching the internet on the internet and giving me an answer with inaccurate inferences that can turn my anxiety into a full panic attack area?

Or, like the kind doctor at the hospital that day, he smiled at the crying man sitting across from whom they had already drafted goodbye to their family on their phones in the waiting room, and the AI ​​tool might be able to see the data, simply saying, “You’re fine, Andy, no longer worry and sleep.”

Maybe it will be like this one day. Maybe health tracking tools and AI insights will be able to provide me with much-needed logic and reassurance to deal with my anxiety rather than being the cause. But until then, it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.