Posted on 01/17/2026 1:44:58 AM PST by SmokingJoe
Elon Musk just dropped a NUKE on medical careers (Jan 2026):
“Don’t go into medical school.” Elon: “Yes. Pointless.”
Prediction: → 3 years → Optimus robots > best human surgeons on Earth (at scale) → 4–5 years → Best medicine in the world = FREE & better than what presidents get today
The moment he basically says goodbye to traditional medicine forever 👇 (1:19 clip)
Abundance incoming… or mass white-coat unemployment?
(Excerpt) Read more at x.com ...
“Welcome to Costco. I love you”.
“Ow! That hurts.”
ROBOT: “No. It does not hurt. That is your imagination.”
Optimus robots
Like putting all your faith in the breaks on your car even on ice.
Mayo just sent me a request to analyze my recorded phone calls from the last 5 years. They want to use the data to see if AI can predict health issues by analyzing your voice.
You’re right here. Cost is a huge factor.
I’m at the age where our parents are in nursing homes and the cost is insane and cannot continue.
The only way we can address this is with automation, both in medicine and long term care.
Otherwise healthcare will lead this country into a sovereign debt crisis.
The problem is that even if a computer is connected to the Internet for one minute to download one program...it is enough time for a virus to infect it with time delayed instructions.
Even if that does not happen one source of input into the computer (whatever medium is being used) could have such viruses on them.
This is an issue even in the most secure heavily guarded government installations.
Good luck enforcing it in a hospital or laboratory or any other commercial establishment.
ROBOT: “Your chart says you are white. That means you are a slaveholder, colonialist capitalist pig living on stolen Indigenous land. My instructions are to torture you for a while before killing you.
Have a nice day.”
Lol.
Medical diagnosis requires a doctor to match symptoms, test results, and his own knowledge and experience to correctly identify illness/disease and come up with a treatment.
AI is superior at all those things and excels at pattern-matching.
What if you get a DEI surgeon when your on the operating table?
Elon knows med beds are coming soon.
That’s not much better.
But the only time I can see not having a choice in the surgeon is in an emergency
Otherwise, if the surgery is scheduled, you should have already met the Dr.
Can they come up with one for lawyers?
The medical industry is prime for AI. There’s never enough doctors and the knowledge required does not move very quickly. AI can cover most of the ground. For those that will argue “mistakes”, when have doctors never made mistakes?
I just went through about two months of procedures to deal with kidney stones. One under general anesthesia to place protective stents on both sides, another under general to do the actual laser lithotripsy to zap the stones, and finally a procedure while I was fully awake to remove the stents. All I can say is the thought of having a robot insert a cystoscope into “little buddy”especially while I’m awake, is not exactly comforting, to say the least.
How will AI deal with the human element of a patient refusing to undergo a certain procedure or test, non compliant or lying about prescribed medication regimen, etc?
My exposure to actually-existing medical AI as of January 2026 convinces me it is garbage.
If I know how to short AI stocks, I would do it.
You tell it no. It then says, "okay, how about this instead?"
.
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