Talking Points–01
- Katrina Papet - Co Founder of DiscoG Coding
- 4 days ago
- 10 min read
Our first Talking Points cycle is complete, and our students had plenty to say. Here’s the prompt they explored, how the process worked, and the winning submission chosen entirely by student vote.
Here's the prompt that launched Cycle 1, along with the description we gave students to kick things off:
"Could robots or AI ever replace human doctors, and should they?"
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing medicine in remarkable ways. Researchers are developing AI systems that can read X-rays, spot signs of disease earlier than humans, and even guide surgeons during complex operations. Some hospitals are also starting to test virtual assistants that help patients check symptoms or get quick answers.
These technologies aren't replacing doctors yet, but they're becoming more capable every year. Many scientists believe AI could one day handle parts of finding out what's wrong and helping people get better. Others worry about what might be lost if machines start making decisions instead of people.
Here are a few things to think about:
What kinds of medical tasks could AI do better or faster than humans?
What might still require understanding feelings or making careful choices... things a robot might not have?
How much would you trust an AI doctor with your health or someone you love?
And even if it could happen... should it?
In 2025, these questions aren't science fiction anymore. They're part of real research shaping the future of healthcare.
The winner's submission:
"The rapid advancement of Artificial intelligence has proven that AI has the capability to do complex tasks. But should it replace Healthcare? Healthcare is crucial for many reasons: it prevents disease outbreaks.
Humans have survived for thousands of years due to human adaptability to new environments. They’ve also been dominating the global hierarchy due to our efficiency and endurance, but should we give up our title because of modern technological advancements? AI is more efficient, logical, and a reliable source to manage large volumes of data. AI can perform surgeries.
However, there's many issues with AI. Such as it'll create a long-term decline, future generations will become heavily reliant on AI and won’t use natural intelligence to solve problems. AI can perform tasks previously done by humans, leading to job losses globally. In recent years global powerhouses such as China have been using with robotic soldiers which can contribute to an excessive loss of life. Excessive dependence on AI can lead to the downfall of humanity. Global warming has been a problem in recent years. AI requires a lot of electricity. The electricity powering these data centres, when generated from fossil fuels, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.
Alternatively, Humans and AI co-exist and perform tasks together and have a symbiotic relationship. My conclusion's that AI should be when there’s a shortage of staff. But human presence is crucial for AI."
— Written by Sid, Year 9
Other Top-Voted Pieces:
Here are the entries that placed 2nd to 10th place... expand the tabs to read them below!
Runner Up – 2nd Place
"Artificial intelligence (AI) can do many things like working out complex problems faster than humans which can be used to their full potential and help in the healthcare system.
A negative impact of robots or AI replacing doctors is many people can lose their jobs and it affects them causing them to have no income or be financially unstable. Another major reason is AI can’t offer emotional support, empathy and human connection between patients and doctors who can understand them and build trust with. Also they can’t read between the lines which can be an important skill and they often take information as it is and may struggle with unique cases or information that hasn’t been documented well.
On the other hand, a positive impact of AI or robots replacing doctors is it works much faster and is more precise, accurate and efficient with vast amounts of medical data. They can also handle repetitive tasks that can free up doctors to focus on complex cases or patient interaction. Tasks involving logic sequences are well suited for AI and can be used to our advantages. AI can work non-stop without needing breaks or rest providing a consistent level of focus and can manage the amount of work well to help them. Using AI or robots can save money in the healthcare system and can improve accessibility with support.
Overall I think AI or robots should assist doctors not replace as doctors can be there for emotional support and empathy and other skills and AI can be there for complicated tasks and for efficiency."
3rd Place
"Artificial Intelligence is rapidly changing medicine, if it would be able to replace doctors entirely it would seem great, but really it could change our medical system more than we want it to. New doctors would be completely depleted of jobs and it would turn into a moral matter. On one hand this could be a huge step in development for medicine and especially micro-surgeries, robots could be able to completely perfect surgeries, but of course there are some things that they can do which humans can't.
If we were able to perfect our surgeries, it would be a positive change as our surgery death rates would decrease but if there was a negative error margin, robots could do it perfectly. However no matter how reliable you think it is, there will always be something that could go wrong, like a power outage or a malfunction.
Moving away from surgery we could go to simple diagnosis, as we know, if you were to search up an symptom online, it will tell you you are so much more ill then you really are, thinking about every different bad condition it could be, almost everything could be a symptom for something lethal. Humans are very good at diagnosing, but definitely better than robots, robots cannot feel sensation, and it would be very difficult without using up unnecessary tests and resources and to diagnose."
4th Place
"I think that the AI can do many medical tasks quicker and better as it holds more knowledge and remembers all different types of methods and ways to help people with its unlimited capacity for learning new things, but also retaining a perfect memory after learning the knowledge. Along with that, the newer self learning AI's may be able to find other ways of treating a disease or a surgery and could take over the jobs of drug trialing by the pharmaceutical industry.
Although the AI is smart, it lacks an emotional mind with it making brutal, definitive decisions, which may not be the greatest use for people being treated as they may harm patients and may end up making rash choices.
I think I would trust an AI doctor to an extent as I believe it has the knowledge and understanding to take over minor related health issues like colds, flus or even common infections but in an intense major situation I would take the human judgement, as the decisions are made to a high level and all accounts are in involved like mental health which the AI won't be able to determine.
I believe in a couple years it should happen in minor health clinics like pharmacies or GP surgeries as it has enough understanding to prevent infection, but I don't feel that it should take on high level health situation until it has self learned and knows more than now, where its based on human knowledge instead of mainly self learning."
5th Place
"I think that while AI is becoming more and more advanced and that it can partially replace human doctors in some aspects such as diagnosing certain diseases such as Covid, it cannot make split second decisions that while risky may save a patient's life or make make a decision based on respecting the patient's religious and personal beliefs.
One of many tasks that AI could do more efficiently is identifying early symptoms of diseases. Human doctors are human and can make mistakes but using AI can remove human error making treatment easier as it is started as early as possible. AI can also help guide human doctors in complex surgeries such as separating conjoined twins or brain surgery where there is a high risk of the patient dying.
However, AI cannot make decisions such as taking a patient of life support or not saving someone with a DNR. These decisions are based on feeling and emotions which AI does not have no matter how advanced it is.
Also, AI isn't trusted by everyone especially when it comes to their own health or that of a loved one making AI useless as these people will not trust the AI and will demand a human doctor's input. For example someone was on life support and the AI said that it would be wiser to take them of life support and let them die naturally. This would make that person's loved one distrust the AI with the patient and request that only human doctors interact with their loved one.
Therefore I think that AI should never fully replace human doctors."
6th Place
"AI should not replace doctors because AI or Robots might make a mistake and have less of a reaction after they made a mistake . It is also a lot riskier because the Robot/AI do not have an experience of what to do in a particular situation and are only programmed to do things. Also if they did replace humans then what would happen to the poor human doctors? What would they do for a living? Also the environment would be a lot worse because of all of the electricity they use. Robots would need refuelling and if that happens in a life threatening procedure for the patient then there might not be enough time to save the patient from death. This is why AI and Robots should not replace doctors."
7th Place
"NO!!!
I personally do not think robots or AI should ever replace human doctors because if anything goes wrong such as malfunctioning or hitting any sort of errors it could be a huge problem for the patients' lives that they are trying to save as well as it becoming a bigger problem. On the other hand some people may disagree with my point because AI has helped them with work, school and probably many other things in their daily lives. However, I do not think that there should be robotic or AI powered doctors because of the fact that every day, a new illness is discovered so having to manually and physically reprogram the robot every day takes away the majority of time from your personal and business time. And if a robot did experience malfunctions or errors the life they are trying to rescue could suffer a serious consequence of being at the risk of death or their body not functioning properly and they may experience pain. Every time this would happen it would make the popularity of AI decrease massively so therefore I personally do not think robots or AI should ever replace human doctors."
8th Place
"I think AI should not replace doctors. I think this because there is many reasons why they should not replace doctors.
One reason is that when doing operations they can misplace the object because their birds-eye view is not accurate enough to put the object in one area.
Another reason is duration. If AI wants to do operations they will need to have energy in some sort of way. If they use batteries, then they need to make sure replaced before every operation. Otherwise it would die out losing the patients life. Also it is easy to lose in your mind on what you were about to do which can result in a patient losing it's life. If you use wires that could come in the robots way when moving around.
Also, people can miscode the robot which will make the AI do thing which aren't relevant to the operation.
This why I think AI shouldn't replace doctors."
9th Place
"I believe that AI will not be able to replace doctors, although they may be able to do certain procedures quicker than doctors, there are still many factors that affect the possibility of AI replacing human doctors.
This is because I believe that patients will be more reassured if they speak to a qualified doctor rather than artificial intelligence which is prone to making mistakes. I also think that humans are also less likely to make mistakes, for example, an operation on patients. This is because doctors have experience in doing these procedures, whereas AI does not. Robots also may malfunction and mess up procedures or operations where steadiness is required.
Patients also may feel that if they are talking to an AI bot about how they feel, AI will not be able to relate as they have never experienced how it feels which may make patients feel less reassured.
I personally would not trust an AI doctor with my health as it would feel like talking to an emotionless wall who in reality does not understand how I feel if I were to fall sick or have any health issues. I also would not feel reassured if AI gave me any instructions or advice as there is always a chance that it gives me the wrong treatment/information about my health.
I do not think this should happen as although people may be relying on AI more, there is always going to be that feeling of AI not understanding you to its fullest where a human could."
10th Place
"I don't think that AI should replace humans as AI doesn't have its own way of thinking it's programmed by humans and I doubt humans would want to update AI as it doesn't benefit them. AI won't be able to find a major cure for a deadly disease or bacterial issue as quick as humans. AI was coded by humans therefore it cannot be considered smarter than humans. AI will not be good for emotionally supporting patients, only humans would be could at showing care to patients. It would not feel right having a robot caring for you. It makes you think how lazy people can be by not showing up when you need the most."
What's next?
With Cycle 1 complete, our students are now diving into the second Talking Points prompt. Here’s a first look at the new question:
"How has learning to code helped you so far, and how do you think it will help you in the future?"
If you want your child to learn to code and develop the kind of skills that genuinely support their future, we would be delighted to have them join our community. It is not just about writing lines of code. It is about learning how to apply those skills to real situations, understanding the technology shaping their world, and using their knowledge thoughtfully.
Our classes give students the space to grow, explore, and contribute to projects like Student Voices. Get in touch and we will happily guide you through the next steps.
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