David Pogue, an Emmy award-winning technology and science journalist, knows that conversations about artificial intelligence often evoke mixed feelings.
At a recent fundraiser at DRIPBaR on Purchase Street, Pogue tried to answer a common question about the rise of AI. “Is this the dawn of a new era of productivity and health and joy? Or is this a dystopian nightmare?” Pogue asked. “The answer is, of course, that nobody has any idea.”
A guest speaker at Hope Takes Flight, sponsored by the nonprofit Support Connection and DRIPBaR, Pogue continued: “This technology is still so early. We’ve never been here before…. It’s very clear that AI working with us is better, more creative, more productive than either us or AI by itself.”
Pogue, host of PBS NOVA and a New York Times bestselling author who also appears regularly on “CBS Sunday Morning,” gave a crash course on the fundamentals of AI in health care, which is of great interest to members of Support Connection, a Yorktown-based cancer support organization. Though Pogue addressed, with humor and candor, the real fears surrounding AI use –– citing Google’s AI Summary providing false information –– Pogue sees AI’s capacity for positive change, pointing to the importance of industry regulations and future legislation to mitigate potential dangers.
AI can also be a source of hope, Pogue said, democratizing effective health care and enabling advanced disease prevention, diagnosis, and research. Using AI-generated images, interview clips, and news headlines, Pogue charmed his audience, offering information on AI’s current and potential impact.
Smartwatches, for example, use AI to provide personalized wellness suggestions; wearables with built-in ECGs can even track heart rhythm and support users who have atrial fibrillation. The WHO’s digital health promoter, SARAH, is an AI assistant designed to increase access to reliable and personalized health information.
On a larger scale, Pogue predicted that Google’s DeepMind initiative AlphaFold will transform prophylactic and diagnostic care of diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS, all of which stem from protein malformation. AlphaFold has mapped all 200 million of the body’s proteins using AI, data that will greatly reduce the time and money needed to perform clinical trials. Groundbreaking drug treatment may even target orphan diseases — conditions that have been historically overlooked because they are rare.
“I think [Pogue’s] education was that there’s so much potential,” said Andrea Della Murra, a two-time cancer survivor who opened DRIPBaR in 2024. “That is what he did –– he planted the seed.”
Diagnosed with cancer at 24, Della Mura found comfort and community at Support Connection, which since its founding in 1996, has offered free emotional, social, and educational services for those affected by breast, ovarian, and gynecological cancers. The group also offers peer counseling from women who are cancer survivors.
Della Mura has been a member since her diagnosis, and the event was part of the organization’s mission to “change fear into hope.” She said she hopes to do the same thing with her DRIPBaR business, which offers clients infusions designed to deliver health benefits.
“I’m hoping that the powers that be can actually use [AI] for the good for once,” Della Murra said. “And for people today, not for people 20 years from now…for humans in the community that desperately need it.”
