This disturbing editorial warns, as artificial intelligence (AI) promises to streamline care, clinicians are quietly becoming the next dataset to be managed, scored, and surveilled. While medical AI has largely been scrutinized for risks to patients, far less attention has been paid to AI trained on clinician behavior and the implications for physician autonomy. Tools like ambient AI scribes, portal message summarizers, and performance dashboards may reduce documentation burden and improve quality metrics, but they also enable granular monitoring of clinician speech, efficiency, empathy, guideline adherence, and time spent with patients. The authors warn that these systems create a breeding ground for “quantified clinicians,” echoing AI-driven surveillance already seen in other industries. Ultimately, without intentional clinician leadership, widespread AI integration into clinical workflows could recast professional judgment as a metric to be optimized as defined by automated algorithms rather than experienced physicians. | Cohen, N Engl J Med 2025
