Oh, look. Another prestige drama has decided that the most terrifying thing in a modern hospital isn’t flesh-eating bacteria, a shortage of affordable insulin, or a surgeon who hasn’t slept since the Obama administration. No, according to *The Pitt*, the real horror—the stuff that makes “gnarly lacerations” look like a spa day—is generative artificial intelligence. Because if there’s one thing we know about medical professionals, it’s that they definitely prefer the “chaos of working in an emergency room” over, say, an algorithm that might actually help them find a vein on the first try.

The Verge’s take on *The Pitt* suggests that while blood infections that rob you of your limbs are a bit of a bummer, the “slow-burning subplot” of AI adoption is the true “unsettling” core of the series. It’s a classic Hollywood trope: Why fear the staph infection you can see when you can fear the Large Language Model you don’t understand?

Let’s talk about the first major claim: that AI in healthcare is inherently more frightening than medical trauma. This is the kind of logic only someone with a very robust PPO and a fear of Excel spreadsheets could conjure. In the real world—the one without a dramatic score—medical errors are a leading cause of death. Human fallibility, fueled by exhaustion, ego, and the inability to read a colleague’s illegible handwriting, kills more people than a rogue chatbot ever could. Research consistently shows that AI diagnostic tools are remarkably adept at spotting early-stage cancers and anomalies on X-rays that tired human eyes miss. But sure, let’s pretend a “slow-burning” software update is the real monster under the hospital bed.

The show assumes that the “chaos” of the ER is a sacred, human-centric environment that must be protected from the cold, calculating touch of technology. This is an adorable sentiment if you’ve never actually waited six hours in a waiting room while the staff tries to find a physical file that was last seen in 2004. The assumption that “hospital automation” is a horror element ignores the fact that healthcare is already a data-driven nightmare. The “horror” isn’t the AI; it’s the fact that we’re still using fax machines to transmit life-saving information. If an AI can triage patients faster than a harried nurse who’s on her fourteenth hour of a double shift, that’s not a horror movie—that’s a miracle.

And then there’s the “slow-burn” criticism of hospitals adopting generative AI. The Verge treats this like a sinister takeover, as if the hospital board is replacing doctors with Roomba-mounted iPads. In reality, AI in medicine is currently being used for things like summarizing patient notes and clinical documentation—tasks that currently occupy about 50% of a doctor’s day. By automating the “unsettling” task of typing, doctors might actually have time to look their patients in the eye. But I suppose “Doctor gets home in time for dinner thanks to efficient charting software” doesn’t make for a very compelling HBO trailer.

The Pitt’s “sharp take” on AI is really just the same old Luddite anxiety repackaged in a white coat. It relies on the assumption that technology is a parasite rather than a tool. It chooses to ignore that AI-driven predictive analytics can identify sepsis—a “vicious blood infection,” to use the summary’s words—hours before clinical symptoms appear. Apparently, the show thinks it’s more “human” to wait for the patient to start dying before you intervene, rather than letting an algorithm warn you that their vitals are trending toward disaster.

So, by all means, let’s keep “roasting” the machines. Let’s pretend that the real threat to our health is a piece of software that wants to help organize medical data, and not the systemic burnout and human error that defines the current “chaos” of the ER. After all, it’s much easier to write a script about a scary computer than it is to address why our actual healthcare system is a horror show without any digital help at all. Stay tuned for Season 3, where I’m sure the hospital’s new automated coffee machine starts plotting a coup. Truly unsettling.