Health AI Ant Afu seeks apprentices; over 30 top doctors in China accept AI disciple

Doctors and AI have recently entered an unusual mentor-apprentice dynamic.

On March 30, International Doctor’s Day, Ant Group’s health AI, Ant Afu, issued an open letter seeking mentorship from leading doctors nationwide. By learning from these experts, Ant Afu hopes to push its AI capabilities further and sharpen its medical expertise. After the letter was released, several doctors—including Dr. Tan Tao, head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Shanghai Oriental Hospital, and Dr. Bo Shining, head of Critical Care Medicine at Peking University Third Hospital—publicly accepted this unusual "AI apprentice" on social media, sharing the questions they prepared for Afu and voicing their hopes for its professional growth. As of this article, more than 30 doctors across China have taken on Afu as their disciple.

Ant Afu Publishes a Mentor-Apprentice Call

The mentor-apprentice letter quickly ignited lively debates. Many netizens suggested other prominent doctors who should take on the AI apprentice. One medical student joked: "After finishing research and clinical work, now even AI is coming to compete with us."

(Netizens rally Afu to find mentors)

Several doctors who agreed to mentor Afu began designing questions for it. These included professional assessments on difficult cases and imaging reports, as well as scenario-based questions that tested the AI's empathy and understanding of medical humanities. After creating the questions, some doctors noted that Afu performed fairly well on professional knowledge but still faced practical challenges AI cannot yet overcome—such as detecting when patients might be concealing or falsifying information. In response, many netizens quipped: "Afu, you still have a lot to learn."

(Dr. Tan Tao of Shanghai Oriental Hospital's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department designs questions for Afu)

Why does Afu need real doctors as mentors? Zhen Shuai, director of the Digital Diagnosis Department at Ant Health's AI Health Assistant Division, explained that expert doctors possess insights beyond standard protocols in their specialties and across medicine as a whole—an area where Afu needs improvement. In Afu's self-learning process, the "chain of thought" or "expert reasoning" from different specialists is critical. Zhen Shuai said that expert guidance can deepen Afu's grasp of real-world healthcare scenarios, helping it address the varied and complex needs of users across different medical fields.

Ant Afu has made its "AI Avatar" technology available to renowned doctors across the country, enabling their expertise to reach a wider audience through personalized AI avatars. Currently, seven national academicians—including Wang Jian'an, Chen Zijiang, and Fan Jia of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Liao Wanqing, Dong Jiahong, Wang Jun, and Wang Ningli of the Chinese Academy of Engineering—have led over 1,000 doctors in creating AI avatars on the platform, offering 24/7 health consultation services to users. Additionally, more than ten leading hospital department heads, such as Dr. Tan Tao from Tongji University Affiliated Oriental Hospital's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, have formed an expert advisory group for Ant Afu, deeply involved in shaping its Q&A logic and evaluation criteria.