opting out of ai note-taker tools in a medical context
recently i had an online medical appointment with a new healthcare provider. at the beginning of the session they asked if i was ok with them using AI (i'm assuming it was a note-taker, i didn't ask).
i said no, i wasn't ok with it. i just said i wasn't comfortable with it (or something like that, not a long conversation. more on why i said no at the end).
they stopped typing and said i was the first person that had said no.
this requires returning to, but that's for another time.
when you opt out of the use of AI, you are helping to build an organization's preparedness for when other people say no to it too. many people in a range of service industries are being trained to use AI products as part of standard operations. again, this is for another day, but it matters to remembers it when interacting with others.
the person that was there to support me was working in a way that relied on the AI product as a default. they needed a minute to gather themself and reorganize how they were going to do notes and anything else during our session. they thought about which way to do notes, and how to manage them, then made a a decision about it, and on we went.
make an effort to think about the situation from the other side. give people grace if they have to change how they are doing their work on the fly. know that by exercising your ability to opt out, you're helping make it easier for others to do so too.
PS: if you're curious about why i said no - i didn't want a full transcript of the conversation to be created. i think there are very few cases where having a full recording of a conversation is necessary/beneficial. it impacts how we speak when we are being recorded, and it also impacts how others speak to us. then, there are the downstream impacts of how those transcripts are used in the provision of care and next steps. the AI note-taking products used in a medical context - often called scribes - are more purposefully developed. again, all a longer post/posts for another day, but i was told this might be helpful to include for context.