The Pulse
Three things shaping AI in healthcare this fortnight:
Musk’s AI tool Grok will be integrated into Pentagon networks, Hegseth says — This signals deeper normalization of large language models in high risk government systems, raising questions about oversight, bias, and downstream healthcare and research uses. (The Guardian, 2026)
‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk — It highlights how consumer facing medical AI can create real world harm when accuracy, context, or uncertainty are not clearly communicated. (The Guardian, 2026)
Here’s how AI data centers affect the electrical grid — The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure may drive higher energy costs and strain local systems, indirectly affecting healthcare budgets and sustainability goals. (CNN, 2026)
Takeaway: AI is moving fast into critical systems, but safety, reliability, and infrastructure limits are becoming harder to ignore.
Psychology & Behavioral Health
Emergence Of AI Personas As Simulated Therapists And Synthetic Patients For Psychotherapy Training And Research (Forbes, 2026)
This article explores how AI generated personas are being used to simulate therapists and patients for training, supervision, and experimental research. These tools may allow scalable practice and controlled studies, but they also raise concerns about realism, bias, and ethical boundaries.
Clinician Cue: Treat AI personas as training aids rather than clinical substitutes, and be mindful of how model assumptions may shape therapeutic norms.
Can AI really care? A psychologist and a computer science professor explore how generative AI is reshaping mental health support (Santa Clara University, 2026)
The authors examine whether AI can meaningfully provide emotional support or if it only simulates care through language. They argue that while AI can expand access and support, it lacks genuine empathy and moral accountability.
Clinician Cue: Use AI to augment access and psychoeducation, not to replace the relational core of therapy.
Medicine & Clinical Innovation
Clinical AI Has Boomed: A New Stanford-Harvard State of Clinical AI Report Shows What Holds Up in Practice. (Stanford Medicine, 2026)
The report finds rapid growth in clinical AI tools, but notes that few demonstrate sustained real world impact beyond narrow tasks. Integration, clinician trust, and workflow fit remain major barriers.
Quick Win: Prioritize tools that clearly reduce clinician workload or decision friction rather than those promising broad intelligence.
An autonomous agentic workflow for clinical detection of cognitive concerns using large language models (NPJ, 2026)
This study presents an AI workflow that autonomously screens clinical notes to flag potential cognitive concerns for further evaluation. Results suggest improved early detection without adding burden to clinicians.
Quick Win: Consider LLM based screening as a background safety net, paired with clear human review and escalation pathways.
Ethics & Oversight
Policy & Compliance: Consumer and clinical AI tools are being pulled back or reassessed when health risks surface, reinforcing the need for post deployment monitoring and clear escalation paths.
Bias & Transparency: From AI health summaries to synthetic therapy personas, model outputs reflect training data and design choices that clinicians may not see but patients still experience.
Accountability & Governance: As AI enters high stakes environments and autonomous workflows, responsibility remains human, especially for validation, review, and final decisions.
Wayde AI Insight
AI is steadily embedding itself into therapy training, clinical screening, consumer health tools, and even national infrastructure. The pattern across these stories is not hype or fear, but friction between speed and trust. AI can extend reach, surface signals, and simulate scenarios at scale. It cannot yet self regulate, explain its limits clearly, or absorb responsibility when things go wrong. For clinicians, the work ahead is less about adopting AI and more about shaping how it shows up, when it pauses, and who remains accountable when care is on the line.
Connect
Helping healthcare professionals adopt AI ethically and responsibly.
Produced by Wayde AI with AI assistance.