Public Perception of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Care: Content Analysis of Social Media

Abstract

Background High-quality medical resources are in high demand worldwide, and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical care may help alleviate the crisis related to this shortage. The development of the medical AI industry depends to a certain extent on whether industry experts have a comprehensive understanding of the public’s views on medical AI. Currently, the opinions of the general public on this matter remain unclear. Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the public perception of AI in medical care through a content analysis of social media data, including specific topics that the public is concerned about; public attitudes toward AI in medical care and the reasons for them; and public opinion on whether AI can replace human doctors. Methods Through an application programming interface, we collected a data set from the Sina Weibo platform comprising more than 16 million users throughout China by crawling all public posts from January to December 2017. Based on this data set, we identified 2315 posts related to AI in medical care and classified them through content analysis. Results Among the 2315 identified posts, we found three types of AI topics discussed on the platform: (1) technology and application (n=987, 42.63%), (2) industry development (n=706, 30.50%), and (3) impact on society (n=622, 26.87%). Out of 956 posts where public attitudes were expressed, 59.4% (n=568), 34.4% (n=329), and 6.2% (n=59) of the posts expressed positive, neutral, and negative attitudes, respectively. The immaturity of AI technology (27/59, 46%) and a distrust of related companies (n=15, 25%) were the two main reasons for the negative attitudes. Across 200 posts that mentioned public attitudes toward replacing human doctors with AI, 47.5% (n=95) and 32.5% (n=65) of the posts expressed that AI would completely or partially replace human doctors, respectively. In comparison, 20.0% (n=40) of the posts expressed that AI would not replace human doctors. Conclusions Our findings indicate that people are most concerned about AI technology and applications. Generally, the majority of people held positive attitudes and believed that AI doctors would completely or partially replace human ones. Compared with previous studies on medical doctors, the general public has a more positive attitude toward medical AI. Lack of trust in AI and the absence of the humanistic care factor are essential reasons why some people still have a negative attitude toward medical AI. We suggest that practitioners may need to pay more attention to promoting the credibility of technology companies and meeting patients’ emotional needs instead of focusing merely on technical issues.

People’s Perceptions of AI Utilization in the Context of COVID-19

“…All of our participants either strongly or somewhat supported AI development in healthcare, even if they felt suspicious of it. This does not align with previous research that demonstrates the mixed public perception of AI [ 8 , 19 ]. A 2020 study showcased that when talking about medical AI on social media, almost 40% of public posts were neutral or were against it [ 8 ].…”

“…This does not align with previous research that demonstrates the mixed public perception of AI [ 8 , 19 ]. A 2020 study showcased that when talking about medical AI on social media, almost 40% of public posts were neutral or were against it [ 8 ]. Furthermore, a study conducted in 2019 describes that when given a short explanation of the development of AI, 41% of Americans somewhat support or strongly support the development of AI, and 22% of Americans somewhat or strongly oppose it [ 19 ].…”

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“…Our study has limitations that need to be acknowledged. The number of participants we included was rather small, which limits generalization of our results to other populations; for example, a previous study suggested that Asian populations may anticipate a more disruptive development of medical AI with the potential replacement of health care professionals [35]. Apart from prior knowledge of AI, we did not observe other significant influences on its acceptance in the medical workflow, which might be attributed to the small sample.…”

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