Abstract:

When it comes to AI in medicine, considerable attention has been devoted to its impact on medical research and to the question of whether AI chatbots might compete with or even replace physicians as diagnostic authorities. Less attention, however, has been paid to what happens to patients’ stories and experiences when they are processed, summarized, and interpreted by artificial agents. 

In this conceptual paper, we examine the complex dynamics between patients, physicians, and AI chatbots using literary texts as case studies. We explore how GenAI may transform patients’ messy, ambiguous, and emotionally charged accounts into medical diagnoses and vice versa how medical diagnoses can be transformed into “resonant” language. We will demonstrate this by using selected passages from Tore Rem’s Tidligere frisk mann. In looking at the two-way translation process of his narrative through AI, we will explore if, in which contexts and to what degree GenAI can affect the communication between patient and doctor.  

As our analytical framework, we draw on Hartmut Rosa’s sociological theories of resonance and alienation. 

Finally, we would like to discuss how these conceptual considerations can be connected to the field of narrative medicine and together reflect their implications for clinical practice.