There’s an old saying: you are often criticised by people doing...

There’s an old saying: you are often criticised by people doing less than you, not more than you. To that end, it’s been amusing to read some of the comments here, criticising the use of AI or ChatGPT without actually taking the time to think critically or understand what took place.Let’s be clear, in the past when I have asked it to search i have also asked it for links because i'm acutely aware that the software occasionally hallucinates. On this occasion, I did not ask ChatGPT to search for anything. I simply copy-pasted a long-winded report published by the National Library of Melbourne (a US government website) into ChatGPT and asked for its interpretation.

The report clearly and ChatGPT stated that the number of echocardiograms per year is 7.1 million, although it also referenced Medicare and a percentage of Medicare users. It was not worded in a way that made it easy to understand, if it was, we wouldn’t be debating it; we’d all understand exactly what it said.Even ChatGPT itself was confused at first. It wasn’t until I challenged it multiple times that it arrived at a figure that aligned with Echo IQ’s company reports and the general understanding some others had not because they conducted any critical analysis themselves, but because they blindly trusted the company’s reports.

Companies are made up of people, and many of those people are financially biased. When it comes to statistics or research that can be used for marketing purposes, companies will always err on the side of optimism, especially if the reported data is favourable albeit ambiguous.Now, whether the number is 7 million or 20 million, I really don’t care. Either way, it’s a significant figure. Neither number guarantees success or increased market share. What truly matters is the technology, the rate of adoption, and the competency of the team driving that adoption.