Do you have a few minutes to really chat? 

YARMOUTH, Maine – Technology has been on the minds of a lot of people these days. You can’t open the New York Times without seeing yet another article on ChatGPT or AI in general. 

The former I find particularly concerning as a writer, not just because I don’t want my words cribbed by some work-shy, wannabe wordsmith, but because I think we’re already becoming less able to think critically and individually, even before we try outsourcing the need to, you know, think.  

More specifically, as a reporter, I can tell you that, despite alarms to the contrary, I think ChatGPT is not that close to taking over my job, despite what “they” think. That’s because to do my job, I need to talk to actual people, to find out what’s going on, to get some color, to get a firsthand account of the action. 

Case in point: Do you think a mere robot is going to get at the heart of a story like Gammie Homecare’s response in the aftermath of the Maui wildfire disaster? If it even knew who to call? Gammie CEO Dale Shimabuku’s account of what she’s seen was heartbreaking – and there was only so much detail I could put in the story. 

And will ChatGPT answer the call of a provider like Bill Fredericks, who clued me in to an ongoing shortage of enteral formula for adults? (Thanks, Bill, for the heads up on that.) 

But it’s also been interesting to see how many providers are very interested in AI and what meaningful impact it can have on health care. The big one, especially for me, is in the diabetes arena. For example, Abbott just acquired Bigfoot Biomedical to further push the combined efforts of those two companies on a smart insulin management system. 

Of course, with each new frontier come challenges. Medtronic is being sued for sharing patient data with third parties (Although, I’m kind of the belief that if Google wants your data, it probably already has it). 

Overall, we move forward. We must. I headed to the Cape in August, with a brand-new Libre Freestyle sensor on my arm. I knocked it off less than 24 hours later (13 days early) and had to spend nearly a week getting it replaced at an out-of-state pharmacy (it really shouldn’t have been that difficult). 

In the meantime, I had to resort to strips and sticks and the pitying glance of my mom who remarked it must feel like going back to the Stone Age.