Partnering with Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI for Prevention of Preventable Deaths

Abstract

Despite decades of medical advances, the United States continues to experience over 1.3 million preventable deaths each year. This editorial, authored using responses to queries submitted to generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT (OpenAI), highlights emerging data suggesting that scalable interventions such as plant-predominant dietary patterns, guideline-directed computerized tomography coronary calcium scanning, and AI-enabled clinical decision making can each prevent tens to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths annually. Among these, AI has the potential to reduce diagnostic and therapeutic errors. Yet adoption of these life-saving tools remains limited in the clinical setting of evaluation and management. We argue that AI must be understood not just as a digital tool but as an ethical and systems-level preventive platform. Health systems and policymakers should act urgently to integrate AI into routine care and realign incentives to support prevention. The time to act is now.