Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban rejects claims AI will replace radiologists

Radiologists just got a high-profile ally in the form of billionaire businessman Mark Cuban. 

The former “Shark Tank” panelist and current co-owner of Cost Plus Drugs on Wednesday defended members of the specialty against claims they will be replaced by artificial intelligence. Cuban’s comments came in response to another user on X.com (formerly Twitter) in a conversation about AI in medicine. 

“No chance radiologists get replaced,” Cuban wrote to his 8.5 million followers on social media Aug. 19. “A model is outdated the minute it is released. Model usage costs money. A lot more than a radiologist. Medicine is a business. Putting together AI with domain knowledge is complex. When it can be the difference between life and death, who do you want building it and using it?”

“People forget that using AI and trying to get accurate answers is a skill that will need to be taught in med school,” Cuban concluded. “AI won't replace radiologists. But every radiologist will use AI.”

Cuban was responding to a previous post from Suneel Dhand, MD, an internal medicine physician specializing in metabolic health. Dhand claims, in the next 5 to 10 years, AI will completely “take over what most doctors do.” 

“Most physicians, and even surgeons, will be toast,” Dhand wrote Aug. 18. “The medical profession has no idea what is about to hit it. Only a few good doctors, especially with excellent communication skills, will remain intact.”

Cuban countered with a series of clinical scenarios, noting that AI cannot reason in real time, perform CPR, nor show empathy and adapt care plans accordingly. 

“I don’t see a world where AI has judgement and can know the outcomes of its decisions without a human in the loop,” Cuban wrote in an earlier post on Wednesday, responding to Dhand. “I’m obviously not a doctor, but there will be no point where real time observation, communication and context won’t matter.”

Cuban, also the former majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball franchise, is no stranger to healthcare. Alongside radiologist Alexander Oshmyansky, MD, PhD, he co-founded Dallas-based Cost Plus Drugs. The company seeks to cut out the middleman in pharmaceuticals, offering medicines at up to 80% discounted prices, with no membership fees nor insurance required. His X.com biography touts his goal of “dunking on the pharma industry” by offering “the lowest prices on meds anywhere.” 

Several radiologists shared Cuban’s comments on Wednesday, agreeing that artificial intelligence is far from replacing them. 

“As a radiologist who has seen a lot of the AI stuff pitched to us for a few years, the doom and gloom is overblown,” Tarang Patel, DO, CEO of Radiology One, responded. “Most AI is very basic. They would do far better to work on the non-interpretive part of radiology. There only a few companies focused on this now.”

“[Mark Cuban] seems to understand healthcare far better than many of the policy wonks who are paid by industry,” Patel, who tweets under the handle @DrMoneyMatters, added in a follow-up post “Why? Likely because Mark engages in conversations with those who do the work. Policy wonks just live in the theoretical world.”

Laura Heacock, MD, a breast radiologist and professor at NYU, says her 2026 bingo card did not include Mark Cuban arguing in favor of her own job security. 

“Year-to-year increasing imaging volume means that even if certain imaging studies become fully automated, and I expect they will, there will be increasing numbers of the complicated/model uncertain studies you want reviewed by a human-AI team,” Heacock wrote in a post sharing Cuban’s comments. 

“This is what it looks like when someone actually takes the time to understand the state of medicine before opining on AI,” wrote Andrei Purysko, MD, an associate professor of radiology and section head of abdominal imaging at the Cleveland Clinic. “Mark Cuban has built an extraordinarily successful and profitable business without exploiting Americans in the process. Others should be taking notes, especially those building AI models for healthcare.”

“Agreed. [AI] will make us more efficient I hope and further improve patient care,” added neuroradiologist Tyler Diener, DO. “Those that are set on [the] idea of AI replacing radiologists have no idea what we do or understand the implications of ‘just trusting AI.’ Huge consequences are at stake.”