Terrence Tao does not understand cancer medicine

Mathematician Terrence Tao argued that cancer patients would want human experts to understand how an AI-derived cure works before using it, but oncologist Vinay Prasad counters that this misunderstands cancer medicine. Prasad points out that many commonly used cancer drugs lack fully understood mechanisms of action, and cancer patients routinely accept treatments based on positive clinical trial data alone, making Tao's concern about understanding irrelevant to actual medical practice. He concludes that if an AI-generated treatment passed a phase 3 trial, every cancer patient and doctor would want it, regardless of whether the mechanism was understood.