On the Season 2 premiere of The Pitt we met Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), the new attending physician stepping in for Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) while he’s off on a three-month motorcycle trip. While the premiere floated the idea that Al-Hashimi is into generative AI, which brings her into conflict (among other reasons) with Dr. Robby, this week’s second episode on HBO Max certainly seemed to fall on one side of the debate: the pro side.
The first time this crops up in this week’s episode is when Santos (Isa Briones) approaches Robby and Al-Hashimi while dealing with a patient who may be abused by her father, but it’s all unclear.
“What is your gut telling you?” Robby asks
“Your… gut?” shoots back Al-Hashimi.
Robby shuts that down with a snide, “Yeah, it’s this little thing that AI will never have.”
Immediately after? Dr. MacKay (Fiona Dourif) approaches with another case and notes that her gut is telling her to go a certain way, with Robby and Al-Hashimi sharing a knowing look.
It isn’t until later in the episode that Al-Hashimi gets the last laugh. She gathers a bunch of the staff around a patient in order to demonstrate her AI app, explaining that as she examines the patient, the app will listen and write the chart for her. “It’s protected, confidential, doesn’t even stay on my phone,” Al-Hashimi explains.
Later, we see the app in action, as Al-Hashimi shows the staff the results of its charting, which is instantaneous.
“Oh my god, do you know how much time this will save?” med student Javadi (Shabana Azeez) says, shocked, with Al-Hashimi explaining that studies show you can spend “80% less time charting. You’ll get out of here sooner, improving by patient and physician satisfaction.”
Almost immediately, though, Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) notices a mistake in the medication listed, with med student Joy (Irene Choi) quipping, “AI… Almost intelligent.”
“Generative AI is 98% accurate at present,” Al-Hashimi says, bristling. “You must always proofread and correct the minor errors. It’s excellent but not perfect.”
The scene moves on, but even for the sometimes didactic speech of The Pitt, this almost plays off like a commercial for generative AI in hospitals. There’s one mistake, it’s clearly saved a ton of time… Why, generative AI must be great, right?
Well, not exactly. In real life, generative AI is far from 98% accurate, particularly in hospitals. Microsoft made waves with a “study” that showed OpenAI was accurate in diagnosing 85.5% of cases. But that’s a small snapshot, and Microsoft’s AI site might have a little bias going on. Meanwhile, a paper from NPJ digital showed an accuracy of 52.1% over 83 studies. That paper also adds that, “generative AI models are not yet reliable substitutes for expert physicians but may serve as valuable aids in non-expert scenarios and as educational tools for medical trainees.”
Of note, both of these are focused on diagnosing patients, which is different than charting. Over at NYU Langone, a study posted in 2024 said on AI charting that, “The reviewing physicians awarded 54 percent of the AI-generated discharge notes the best-possible accuracy rating. They also found that 56 percent of notes created by AI were entirely complete.”
Whether you view what would be a failing grade as good or bad, none of these results are anywhere near Al-Hashimi’s 98%. Perhaps this is because The Pitt Season 2 takes place in the faraway future of July, 2026, when AI has become exponentially more accurate?
The bigger issue is, what exactly is The Pitt, which is a fictional show created not by AI, but by writers, actors, directors and craftspeople, trying to say about AI?
Back at a press conference for Season 2 attended by Comic Book Club, the producers were asked about this very plot point.
Noting that they met with an expert on this, Wyle said, “We are on the cusp of so many amazing breakthroughs because of this computational data programming. Whether it’s identifying cancer, disease earlier than ever thought before, or in the way that we talk about it, which is just the use of it in your charting and in your dictation to allow you to be hands-free and to look in the eyes of your patient and not have to type everything into a screen really creates more of a sense of intimacy and a sense of presence in the room. And it’s pretty accurate. It’s not totally accurate as we play- as we depict, but it’s getting closer and closer.”
That seems pretty positive, but Wyle continued. “The question is whether or not, like most of these technological advancements, it’s going to increase efficiency, but will it come at the cost of redundancy? Does this just mean that fewer people will have jobs and is that really an advancement? If this technology’s replacing people, as we see in our own industry, I’m not sure that’s a breakthrough.”
Added producer John Wells, “You also have the issue, a suspicion which often happens with new technologies is, with the additional time that the physicians will get back from being able to use this technology, will they be able to use that to spend more time with patients? Or is it simply going to be accelerating how many patients you’re supposed to see? Is the expectation that the technology allows you to be a better practitioner or that it actually accelerates how you have to practice? And that’s the real fear, I think, of the medical community.”
Look, it’s clear that there is thought behind the dangers here. And without spoiling much (see our Season 2 review for more) there’s more to come on this. But as of Episode 2, it seems like The Pitt is falling on the side of “AI hooray.” Our diagnosis for that? Bad.
The Pitt Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Pitt premiere Thursdays on HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. While the full episode release schedule has yet to be officially announced, the season will run 15 episodes, and we currently expect it to run straight through without breaks, with one episode premiering per week.
We also expect that it will follow the same real-time format hour by hour as Season 1. While the first nine episode “titles” are confirmed it’s always possible there could be a twist at the end of the season. So full caveat here that this may change, TBA by HBO Max.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in The Pitt Season 2 with premiere dates.
- Thursday, January 8, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 1 – “7:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 15, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 2 – “8:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 22, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 3 – “9:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, January 29, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 4 – “10:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, February 5, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 5 – “11:00 A.M.”
- Thursday, February 12, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 6 – “12:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 7 – “1:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 8 – “2:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 9 – “3:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 12, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 10 – “4:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 19, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 11 – “5:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, March 26, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 12 – “6:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 2, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 13 – “7:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 9, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 14 – “8:00 P.M.”
- Thursday, April 16, 2026: The Pitt, Season 2, Episode 15 – “9:00 P.M.” *Season Finale*
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