The Khosla family just published a paper in JAMA arguing that human doctors make AI worse. I read all four (wow! 😊) pages, including the part where the authors disclose they are invested in the AI. Here’s what holds up, what doesn’t, and why the disclosure section is the most honest science in the entire piece. 😉
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All right, housekeeping done. Now for today’s main event.
Well, well, well. The “AI will replace doctors” debate, which, as my paid subscribers know, I’ve been chronicling since Warner Slack’s automated patient questionnaire in 1955, just got its most prestigious endorsement yet.
Yesterday, August 17, 2026, JAMA published a Perspective titled “Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care?” (Translation: not a study. An opinion piece.) The authors answer their own question with two words: “We disagree.” Not with the premise, but with the medical establishment. The AMA, the American College of Physicians, and Robert Wachter’s new book all conclude AI should assist doctors. The authors say AI alone is “likely to be better” than doctors, and better than doctors using AI, at 5 fundamental cognitive medical tasks. And they say the switch could be ready “in some, maybe many, workflows by 2030.”
Who are these bold authors? Ezekiel J. “Zeke” Emanuel, oncologist, bioethicist, architect of the ACA (aka Obamacare), who in 2016 added a second career as venture partner at a multibillion dollar healthcare investment fund (we’ll get to that). Abe Baker-Butler, Emanuel’s research fellow at Penn and co-first author. Neal Khosla, CEO of Curai Health, an autonomous-AI primary care company. And Vinod Khosla, Neal’s father, billionaire founder of Khosla Ventures, early OpenAI investor, and the man who has been predicting the end of doctors since 2012 with the consistency of a Swiss watch and the accuracy of a Magic 8 Ball. 🎱
My longtime paid subscribers know where I stand, because I laid it out across my 6-part series on this exact debate. I am not a doctor-protectionist. In Part 4, I made what might be the most comprehensive case yet FOR the “AI will replace doctors” argument, and I ended it with “Wake up, America. It’s time to embrace AI in healthcare.” I meant every word. I have also publicly predicted that fully autonomous AI diagnosis, with no human in the loop, is coming.
So no, I’m not here to tell you the Khoslas are wrong about the destination.
I’m here to tell you that this JAMA article is not the vehicle that gets us there. It’s a pitch deck wearing a lab coat.
TL;DR:
1. What Exactly JAMA Published Yesterday
2. Follow the Money: An Author List That Doubles as a Cap Table 💰
3. Task by Task: Their Evidence Under the Microscope 🔬
4. The “Humans Drag Down AI” Claim: Same 6 Vignettes, New Wrapper
5. A Chess Blog Walks Into JAMA ♟️
6. The Curai Sideshow: 91% of What, Exactly?
7. Emanuel vs. Emanuel, and 14 Years of Khosla Predictions
8. Silver Linings: Where the Authors Are Right
9. My Peer Reviewer Wish List
10. Conclusion
