Dr. Alexa Will See You Now: Can We Trust Digital Assistants With Our Health Data?

It’s hard to imagine a field where data is more valuable than in healthcare. Monitoring and interpreting crucial health indices can make the difference between an early diagnosis and a late one—and that, in turn, can be the difference between life and death for some people.

As neural networks and machine learning algorithms get better at interpreting these signals, and even diagnosing certain illnesses, there’s a clear drive towards creating a fully-integrated medical assistant: one that can converse with you about your health while simultaneously using data from wearable devices, blood-sugar measurements, and possibly more complicated tests to diagnose any conditions.

In an ideal world, this would flag any potential problems early, allowing patients to get the...