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I agree with you, but what's most important is the impression that the average person who uses it will have. And I don't think most people would think of this as like "taking your temperature at home". I think most people who might upload their x-ray scans would take this a lot more seriously.

A false positive could create a lot of anxiety and emotional distress, and the patient might need to go to 2, 3, or 4 other doctors to get second opinions before they feel comfortable that they really don't have cancer.

A false negative could be even worse. A patient might think "oh, the official-looking online thing said I don't have cancer, so I don't need to wait for or consider a human radiologist's results", and not believe they need treatment.

I think it's very important that people understand that -- until more research is done -- this is still not a substitute for having a human look at your x-rays. If we could be reasonably sure that everyone (or at least a very large majority) understood this when using this tool, then I think people would have far fewer objections. But I don't think that's the case.

Having said that, I think it's safe to assume that this tool has saved lives, so it's almost certainly been a net positive for people.



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