Speaking with Ezra Klein, Bill Gates points to Hippocratic AI as an example of where AI is headed in patient care. He describes AI nurses, a category with several companies, that people can reach by phone or chat. They have perfect memory and never hurry a patient to get off the line. Gates says people show a “far greater preference” for these AI nurses, and he puts them alongside Waymo, where many riders choose the autonomous car over a human driver.
Gates’s point is that once a service like this clears the quality bar, patients and customers will choose it. He sees that kind of round-the-clock, multilingual, always-patient support as a clear example of AI’s strengths. Klein raises a hopeful possibility as well: more AI nurses could mean more people reaching the hospital and the doctor, with human nurses caring for them from there.