China opens 1st AI hospital town to treat patients in virtual world

China has opened its first artificial intelligence (AI) hospital town, where patients are treated in a virtual world by AI-generated doctors, state media reported on Wednesday.

“The concept of an AI hospital town, where virtual patients are treated by AI doctors, holds immense significance for both medical professionals and the general public. The AI hospital aims to train doctor agents through a simulated environment so that it can autonomously evolve and improve its ability to treat disease,” the Beijing-based Global Times reported, citing recent interviews with Chinese researchers.

The researchers shed light on the practical implications of this novel approach to health care.

Tsinghua University researchers recently created the "Agent Hospital" in this virtual world, where all doctors, nurses, and patients are controlled by intelligent agents powered by large language models (LLMs) that can interact autonomously.

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AI doctors can treat 10,000 patients in a few days, a task that would take human doctors at least two years.

Research team leader of the Agent Hospital, Liu Yang, said this innovative method enables real doctors to treat virtual patients while also providing medical students with better training.

By simulating various AI patients, students can confidently propose treatment plans without risking harm to real patients, Liu stressed.

"AI hospital town can simulate and predict various medical scenarios, such as the spread, development and control of infectious diseases in a region," he added.

Liu announced that after six months of development, the AI hospital town is nearing readiness for practical use, aiming to be operational by the second half of 2024.