Beneficial and Harmful Effects Practice Test

Case study: A state health system deploys AI-driven personalized medicine for diabetes care. Patients opt in to share electronic health records, continuous glucose monitor data, and lifestyle surveys. The AI model predicts which medication plan is most likely to stabilize blood sugar and sends clinicians alerts when a patient’s readings suggest elevated risk.

Benefits: The program reduces preventable hospitalizations by catching problems earlier, and it supports overworked clinics by prioritizing high-risk patients. Patients in remote areas receive more consistent follow-up through telehealth. A 2023 U.S. government advisory notes that health AI can improve efficiency when used with human oversight and clear evaluation.

Harms: Centralizing sensitive health and sensor data increases the consequences of a breach. Even de-identified datasets can sometimes be re-identified by combining them with other information. Ethical concerns also arise: if an insurer or employer gains access, predictions could be used to discriminate, so strict access controls matter. The system occasionally recommends a plan that conflicts with a clinician’s judgment because it learns patterns that do not reflect a patient’s unique context, underscoring limits of data-driven inference.

Based on the case study, which statement best summarizes the dual impact of AI-driven personalized medicine in the passage?

Case study: A school district adopts a social media platform-style app for announcements, student clubs, and parent-teacher messaging. The app’s feed is curated by a recommendation algorithm (a set of rules learned from data) that promotes posts likely to get reactions. It offers translation and automatic captioning, helping multilingual families and students with hearing differences. Teachers post homework reminders, and emergency alerts reach phones immediately.

Benefits: Communication improves: parents who work multiple jobs can still message teachers asynchronously, and clubs recruit members quickly. Pew Research Center surveys consistently show a large majority of U.S. teens use social media, so the district meets families where they already communicate. Rapid updates reduce missed assignments and improve attendance at events.

Harms: The same engagement-focused design can amplify misinformation and rumor, because sensational posts often get more reactions. Researchers link heavy social media use to mental health concerns for some adolescents, including sleep disruption and anxiety, though effects vary by individual. The district also learns that the vendor collects behavioral data (clicks, time spent) to personalize content, raising privacy issues, especially for minors. A student-created false account spreads a fabricated “school closure” post, causing confusion and missed class.

Considering the described technology, in what ways does the school’s social-media-style app improve and challenge societal norms as mentioned in the passage?