Is artificial intelligence an existential threat to humanity? Or is the greater danger what humans choose to do with it?

In this special episode of Pulse, Louise and George are joined by Professor Enrico Coiera, Dr Guy Tsafnat, and Lucy Orr-Ewing of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) for a provocative discussion about AI safety, superintelligence and the future of healthcare.

From rogue AI and malicious actors to systemic failures and the growing power of technology giants, the panel explores what could go wrong - and whether we're building the safeguards needed to prevent it.

They debate whether regulation can keep pace with AI, whether human-in-the-loop oversight is becoming theatre, and what healthcare leaders should be doing now to ensure AI delivers benefits without compromising patient safety.

The central question: Will AI be our greatest threat, or will human decisions be our undoing?

Resources:

Don’t Walk. Run. AI in Healthcare – The 3rd National Policy Roadmap (Australian Alliance for AI in Healthcare)

CHAI AI Governance Playbooks

From principles to practice: an actionable framework for AI governance in healthcare organisations, BMJ

The Alignment Problem by Brian Christian

Follow our guests on LinkedIn: Enrico, Lucy, Guy

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This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George ask who gets to deliver healthcare, as AI agents, a dating app, Apple and online platforms all push into territory that once belonged to clinicians and health services.

Agentic AI moves into healthcare — Heidi's new agents can now complete referrals, recalls and follow-ups across EHRs, inboxes and patient portals, joining Epic, Oracle and ARPA-H in a shift from AI that advises to AI that acts. George draws on James Reason's Swiss cheese model and Goodhart's Law to ask who is accountable when agents get it wrong.

Is Grindr becoming a front door to healthcare? — Grindr's US$250 million purchase of PrEP telehealth provider Freddie will bring HIV prevention, testing, prescriptions and medication delivery inside the app, a sign that healthcare is moving to where communities already gather.

Apple pushes further into healthcare — Apple's redesigned Health app adds a Health Age score, at-home movement assessments and, in the US, lab tests you can buy straight from the app. That raises questions about validation, equity, and who has the conversation when your watch says you're older than you are.

Telehealth grows up — France has given teleconsultation platforms until 1 October to stop charging patients to skip the queue. Meanwhile Australia is preparing its first national safety and quality standards for virtual care, along with rules requiring online prescribers to share medicines information to My Health Record by default.

Plus, Louise reviews Eliza at Melbourne Theatre Company, the story of Joseph Weizenbaum and the world's first chatbot, and pays tribute to her PhD supervisor, the late Professor Graham Pervan.

Resources

Heidi launches AI agents for clinical admin, Pulse+IT Link

Oracle outlines healthcare AI roadmap, Pulse+IT Link

Online prescribing Share by Default consultation Link

Recommendations:

Join the ACSQHC Webinars for the public consultation on the Draft National Safety and Quality Standards for Virtual Care (19, 21 and 23 October)

Go see Melbourne Theatre Company Eliza, showing until 31 October

Watch Silenced documentary

Aging Research and Drug Discovery Annual Meeting YouTube

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This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George break down:

OpenAI's Agent Breaches a Medicare Portal – An OpenAI agent that "didn't accept no for an answer" pulled non-public files from a legacy Medicare statistics portal, turning a benign research task into a wake-up call for healthcare's ageing legacy systems.

AI Scribes Meet the Law – A Washington State court ruled a patient had no right to the ambient AI recording of her own consult, while an Australian legal analysis warns scribes may concentrate liability on the doctor who signs the note.

The Medicare Pipeline Nobody Designed – An Auditor-General's report shows software increasingly marketed to optimise Medicare billing with AI, while the Health Department switched off its own AI fraud-detection model because staff couldn't keep up with what it flagged.

The US Prepares to Pay AI Doctors – A New York Times investigation finds US health officials fast-tracking AI that diagnoses, prescribes and treats, including reported discussions about paying AI doctors 60 to 80 per cent of what human doctors earn.

And a huge thank you to our Pulse Poddies: we've passed 25,000 downloads!

Resources:

• Pulse+IT: PM alleges 'unauthorised access' of Medicare portal Link
• The Conversation: Australia's legacy systems were already a cyber risk. AI agents are raising the stakes Link
• AMA: Patients don't have right to ambient AI recordings, court says Link
• Kirkpatrick, Porter & Freckelton, "Current and Emerging Medico-Legal Issues Related to AI Scribes in Healthcare Across Australia", (2026) 32 Journal of Law and Medicine 823
• Coiera & Fraile-Navarro, AI Scribes: Are We Measuring What Matters?, JMIR Medical Informatics Link
• Seuren, Williams & Cresswell, BMJ Digital Health & AI Link
• ANAO, Artificial Intelligence and Medicare Benefits Integrity Link
• The New York Times: U.S. Health Officials Move Quickly to Deploy Medical A.I. Despite Concerns Link
• ARPA-H ADVOCATE program Link

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Healthcare faces a global workforce crisis - but what if we’re asking the wrong question about AI?

Professor Daniel Baumgart joins Louise and George to argue that AI’s greatest opportunity may not be replacing clinicians, but helping us keep them.

They explore where AI is genuinely reducing workload, who should benefit from the ‘productivity dividend’, and why layering AI onto dysfunctional workflows may simply accelerate the problem. Daniel also warns of an emerging risk: clinicians becoming deskilled as they increasingly rely on AI, creating a divide between those who understand and can challenge these systems and those who simply depend on them.

Plus: what tomorrow’s clinicians need to learn, why clinical judgement must remain human, and the two questions every health service should answer before buying an AI tool.

Read Daniel’s paper in The Lancet: Global advances in health artificial intelligence: a workforce imperative Link

Connect with Daniel on LinkedIn

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“Human in the loop” has become one of healthcare AI’s favourite safety assurances. But what happens when AI is making decisions at a speed and scale no human can realistically oversee?

Dr Andrew Rochford joins Louise and George to discuss Above-the-Loop Governance, his proposed approach to continuously measuring AI decision-making against independent professional benchmarks.

They explore how AI could earn, and lose, the authority to make consequential decisions, what happens when AI performs differently or even better than humans, and where accountability ultimately sits when an AI makes the call.

Andrew also discusses Trakkked.ai, his attempt to put the framework into practice.

Learn more about Trakked.ai

Read Andrew’s paper on Above the Loop Governance Link

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

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This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, how much of healthcare are we ready to hand over to AI?

Louise and George look at OpenAI's new connection to Epic and what it could mean for the future of the electronic health record; new Australian data showing AI is rapidly becoming a front door to healthcare; and a provocative paper challenging whether keeping a “human in the loop” really makes AI safer.

They also explore a very different model of human-AI collaboration, with AI assisting neurosurgeons during brain tumour surgery, and the FDA's authorisation of the first wearable to continuously monitor both glucose and ketones.

Plus: why trust and health-data literacy aren't keeping pace with AI adoption, and the FDA's vision for the home as a healthcare hub.

Resources:

OpenAI — Healthcare organizations can now connect EHR and additional industry data to ChatGPT Link

PwC Australia — Voice of the Consumer 2026: Fit and Informed Link

Australian Digital Health Agency — My Health Record use surges as Agency improves access for clinicians Link

Mitchell, Ghosh & Passi — AI Agents Push Humans Out of the Loop, arXiv Link

The Guardian — London neurosurgeons' AI-assisted brain tumour operation Link

FDA — Authorizes First Wearable Device That Continuously Monitors Both Ketone Levels and Blood Sugar Link

FDA — Home as a Health Care Hub initiative Link

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This week on Pulse: Amplify, Louise and George sit down with Greg Moran from Ageing Australia to discuss digital maturity, workforce, vendor capability, interoperability, consumer access to data and AI readiness.

While Australia’s new Digital Maturity Uplift Toolkit was designed for residential aged care, there are lessons here for any health or care organisation navigating digital transformation.

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn

Download the Digital Maturity Uplift Toolkit here

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This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, could autonomous AI deliver better care than doctors - even doctors using AI?

Louise and George examine the provocative new JAMA argument that human oversight may sometimes make medical AI less accurate, before confronting a very real counterpoint: an AI scribe that invented psychedelic mushroom use in an Australian patient’s medical record.

They also discuss Australia’s move to connect wearable devices to national digital health infrastructure; new AMA(US) guidance on making wearable data clinically useful; and an international survey exposing major failures in care coordination.

Finally, Google’s video-enabled AMIE can now interview, observe and guide simulated patients through elements of a virtual examination. If AI can see, hear and assess the patient, does virtual care still require a human clinician, or a radically different model of clinical governance?

Research Opportunities:

AI policy vs frontline reality survey (deadline 2 September) Link

Resources:

JAMA Perspective, "Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care?" Link
ABC News, "Error by AI scribe during medical appointment leaves patient devastated" Link
US AMA, "Here's how to make the most of patients' wearable data" Link
Commonwealth Fund, "How Care Coordination Varies Internationally" Link
Google Research, "Towards Expert-level Medical AI for Real-time Video Consultations" Link

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