The Ghost in the Machine: Will AI Open the Door to Fully Autonomous Robotic Surgery?

We live in a world where robots can operate with a level of precision that is hard for humans to match, and robotic laparoscopic surgery has become familiar if not commonplace. Until now, surgical tools have always been firmly in the control of experienced human surgeons, but the advent of sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) systems allows us to envisage a future in which technology does the thinking and the decision-making in increasingly complex procedures. Already, there are systems that are capable of suturing wounds in some instances, and AI is greatly efficiency and accuracy with which medical imagery is analyzed, so it is likely that AI will soon play a bigger role in determining clinical choices and performing surgical procedures. But many questions remain about whether fully autonomous robotic surgery is possible, necessary, desirable, and ethical. In this article, we examine how the role AI currently plays in robotic surgery, where it has potentially valuable applications, and how far it must progress to reach some level of autonomy, as well as exploring the ethical, practical, and regulatory factors that might keep AI in check.