Use of Artificial Intelligence in AAMC Service Programs

The AAMC is leading efforts to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance our tools and services to better support learners, medical schools, and academic health systems. By integrating AI responsibly and transparently, we aim to improve access to information, streamline processes, and deliver more personalized and efficient experiences across academic medicine.  

We are committed to openly sharing how AI is used at the AAMC, including the purpose of AI tools in our work and how it supports (but does not replace) human decision-making. While AI can help organize information and improve some steps in the medical school and residency application process, it does not replace human reviewers, program leaders, and experts making decisions about applicants. We take seriously the risk of bias in any algorithm system, and our approach includes in-depth testing and assessment to ensure fair outcomes for all applicants. 

In February 2024, the AAMC convened a technical advisory committee to create the Principles for Responsible AI in Medical School and Residency Selection. The group consisted of seven individuals with expertise in data science, industrial and organizational psychology, and residency selection. The group met several times for six months, reviewing standards from other industries and discussing the current and future state of AI in medical school and residency selection before drafting the AI Principles. These in-depth principles will be integrated into all the AAMC’s use of AI. 

Additional details on artificial intelligence and academic medicine are available in the AAMC AI Collection.  

Yes, the use of AI tools is acceptable for brainstorming, proofreading, or editing the personal statement and other aspects of the application. However, applicants are asked to affirm that their final application submission is an accurate representation of their experience and represents their own work.

In the American Medical College Application Service® (AMCAS®), Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®), and PREview® program, the AAMC is exploring how AI may support, but not replace, human expertise. All core admissions services are designed and operated by people. The AAMC is committed to responsible and transparent use of AI operated by people.

The ERAS platform itself does not use AI to analyze, sort, or evaluate applications. All application data is transmitted exactly as submitted by applicants.

At present, Thalamus uses optical character recognition (OCR) in Cortex to extract core clerkship grades from transcript PDFs and apply a normalized percentile and grade distribution within and across medical schools. Thalamus Cortex also uses AI to read personal statements and assesses certain applicant characteristics, starting with Academic Career Interest for the 2026 ERAS season.

Thalamus does not use AI to score applications; automatically filter out, search, sort, select, or reject applicants; or determine whether essays were written with AI tools (avoiding biases that disproportionately affect applicants). Thalamus AI tools continue to progress forward and evolve based on user feedback. Additional information regarding Thalamus’s AI philosophy can be found on the Thalamus website.

The AAMC has several research projects underway that utilize advanced analytics, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Model (LLM), to analyze, understand, and gain insights from essays and other dense text. Additionally, we have research and development projects, being conducted in collaboration with constituents, underway to explore the viability of using advanced analytic techniques to improve predictions about where applicants will be invited to interview. If successful, these techniques could be used to help applicants identify programs where they are competitive candidates and to help programs prioritize applications so they can conduct a more in-depth review of applications.