Trump's Medicare & Medicaid administrator, Dr. Oz, told all rural Americans, no matter if they like it or not, the best way to help them is through mental health and addiction is to use "AI-based avatars" while discussing their "Action for Progress" initiative.

So many Americans are already wary of AI, and what it will do in general, so the idea by Dr. Oz to force people dealing with mental health and addiction problems to go on a computer or tablet and deal with AI for their serious issues is an indictment of their continuing destruction of healthcare services.

OZ: The Rural Health Transformation Fund is a 50% increased investment over what we currently spend for Medicaid in these rural health care systems. It's the largest investment of its kind ever made. And all of the states, 50 states, were given a chance to compete for this money. They all got some of it.

And a large number of these applications included mental health support systems.

But I'm telling you right now, there's no question about it, whether you want it or not, the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars. Agentic AI taking the ability to do the intake, just catch the patient, customize to what their needs are, understand what they're up to.

If you go, and please go play with these tools, they're unbelievable. They'll pick up subtle little nuances in how you're saying things. If you do it on purpose, it's actually sort of cool to find out.

That will alert the avatar, but more importantly, the doctor they're gonna report to, that there's something going on.

So when the clinician connects with you, and there will always be a doctor, 50% of our cortex is designed to read the face of the person in front of you. I can look at you and tell you're bored, happy, excited, running away, whatever.

But before you say a thing, and we're hardwired to read each other for that reason. We're social entities by definition. We got to where we are because we're social entities. So the key question is, how do we use AI thoughtfully in that setting? And if we do it right, we'll build a much more sustainable healthcare system around mental health issues.

Wow, facial recognition will now diagnose you!

It does not matter how much Dr. Oz hypes these ideas; they will not fly.

The public has already seen too many instances of AI screw-ups, or of systems that don't understand or misinterpret simple requests, and now the Trump administration wants to force people to use them for such intimate problems when they are suffering. This is unconscionable.

Oz forgets those who are, for the most part, computer illiterate.

What are they to do?