AI Destroys Doctors with 2-Second Diagnosis

In a striking demonstration of the rapid evolution of medical artificial intelligence, two advanced AI systems outperformed a team of senior Chinese physicians in a live diagnostic competition in Shanghai, Chinese state media reports.

The event took place during the Pujiang Medical AI Conference at the first Shanghai Medical AI Skills Competition, where four chief physicians from leading Shanghai hospitals competed against two AI models to diagnose a complex gastrointestinal case. According to ShanghaiEye, a state-affiliated outlet under the Shanghai Media Group, the face-off offered an unprecedented glimpse into AI’s expanding role in clinical decision-making.

To ensure impartiality, the human doctors’ identities were concealed with animal masks as they divided into two diagnostic teams. Their opponents: China’s newly developed Gastrointestinal Multimodal AI, and an unnamed international AI system.

China’s model — developed this year by Shanghai AI Lab in collaboration with local hospitals — has been trained on 30,000 real clinical cases and is capable of interpreting both endoscopic images and CT scans.

In a dramatic comparison of speed, both AI systems reportedly produced diagnostic conclusions in under two seconds, while the human teams required approximately 13 minutes to reach their assessments.

State media reports that the Chinese-built AI matched the physicians’ diagnosis and proposed treatment, achieving full alignment with the experts’ conclusions. By contrast, the international AI model “fell slightly short in diagnostic accuracy,” according to ShanghaiEye.

Luo Meng, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, praised the demonstration as evidence of AI’s accelerating value in modern medicine.

“Through this real-world demonstration, we can see that future large models will undoubtedly play a valuable role in training our diagnostic and treatment skills and enhancing our overall capabilities,” Luo said.

“Of course, our goal is not to make AI models stronger for their own sake, but to use these powerful tools to make our doctors stronger.”

The event underscores China’s expanding push into medical AI and its ambition to integrate high-speed, multimodal diagnostic systems into clinical environments.