The Effects of Artificial Intelligence Assistants on the Acquisition of Laparoscopic Surgical Spatial Navigation Skills

Laparoscopic surgery requires the surgeon to map their motor (motion) space to a misaligned visual space. For this reason, laparoscopic surgery requires spatial navigation skills for proficiency. There are several training and simulation methods to decrease the difficulty of learning these skills. As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increase in sophistication and prevalence, researchers are developing AI systems to assist in laparoscopic surgery. The concern is that consistent use of AI systems during training will limit the skills acquired and cause a potentially unsafe reliance on AI systems. This study examined naive participants learning and trying to improve at a simulated laparoscopic surgical navigation task with no assistance, passive assistance, or active assistance. The results of a small pilot study suggested that all groups improved throughout the training sessions. However, the data did not demonstrate a significant reliance on AI assistance from the active assistance group, indicating minimal impact on dependency.