AI and Ophthalmology

This is a speculative post. Typically, I shy away from speculative posts, but today I am not going to.

In the coming years, there will be more and more that computers are capable of doing. In something that seems to be a bit of an unexpected twist, the jobs that computers are replacing are more white collar jobs than blue collar jobs. Large language models area able to generate extensive prose and poetry, so it seems on the horizon that they may make major changes to the writing field quickly.

Speaking of white collar jobs, is ophthalmology on the AI chopping block? We like to think that we are somewhat protected due to our highly specialized labor of performing eye exams with fancy equipment and conducting microsurgery. However, I shared earlier in this blog that I have seen that robots already seem to be able to perform cataract surgery without human drivers. Robot exams and robot surgery may not be far off.

So what will be the role of the ophthalmologist? Will we be relegated to the scrap heap? Or will we have to fill a slightly different niche? I am thinking it will be more the latter, but perhaps I am only hopeful given that my job depends on it.