Medical superintelligence: foundations and aspirations

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have stimulated discussions about medical superintelligence, yet how to define and evaluate this aspiration remains unclear. We discuss how AI technologies can contribute to more effective care, introducing six interdependent dimensions of medical intelligence to frame contributions of AI to healthcare delivery. As AI capabilities and their integration into clinical workflows advance, improving the quality of care will require more than superhuman performance on isolated tasks. It will require systems that harness AI, independently and in collaboration with humans, to surpass today's strongest human-led health systems in integrated medical reasoning across the full arc of care. Realising their value will require understanding how these capabilities complement existing medical intelligence and combining them effectively to improve the quality and accessibility of care.