One of OpenAI’s large language models did better than physicians in several experiments, hinting that A.I.-assisted emergency medical care could be around the corner

The A.I. model outperformed two doctors when presented with data from dozens of real E.R. patients. Harrison Keely via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 4.0

Since the 1950s , scientists have been comparing human doctors with computers to see if the machines’ algorithms can accurately diagnose complex health conditions. In a standard test, computers attempt to puzzle out challenging case studies from the New England Journal of Medicine .

Machines have recently improved at the task, primarily because of artificial intelligence built on large language models, like the one powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But so far, A.I. has done well only when it comes to curated case studies.

Now, researchers have put an A.I. model—a preview version of OpenAI’s o1 —to the diagnostic test with real hospital records.…