Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Artificial Intelligence and Its Potential to Revolutionize Healthcare

Back in the 1960s, Artificial Intelligence, also known as AI, was characterized by science fiction as a terrifying prospect. In the film "2001: A Space Odyssey," a monotone AI named HAL 9000 betrayed the main protagonist, locking him out of his own spaceship and preventing him from carrying out his orders. As the highest-grossing movie of 1968, "2001" set a tone in pop culture that is hard to overcome, that of the backstabbing, emotionally cold computer who has no respect for the value of human life.

What about today? Cinema is not known for its historical tendency to portray things accurately. It goes for the dramatic flair, the terrifying glamor. Today, artificial intelligence is just about as boring, but useful, as could be. Researchers at Indiana University discovered, just a few years ago, that if you take all the medical data that patients give their doctors, but instead gave it to an AI, the machine would spit back treatment paths that increase positive outcomes by over 40% while decreasing healthcare costs by over half. Half!

How is this possible? Computers are becoming far more intelligent every year, and these computers were doing something called 'simulation modeling.' This modeling is done by inputting patient info into a diagnosing, decision-making supercomputer that computes predictions and outcomes for every single path of medical treatment. As new information comes to light, new paths are considered. The AI is essentially programmed to 'think like a doctor.'

This sort of breakthrough would be guided by advances in voice recognition, which would allow patients to talk directly to a machine instead of a doctor in certain circumstances to allow for earlier diagnosis, and mathematical frameworks, which allow the programmers to deploy such discoveries at massive scales. In the rapidly-advancing future, the sky is the limit!

In the near-future, AI is going to define several significant developments in our daily lives, talking to our phones, replacing our doctors, and guiding us through our preferred entertainment. It's good to know that it's a technology that is not going to be used against us or used to surpass us, but instead one that will be used to intelligently help us and enhance our processes. It will improve things that much need improving, like healthcare, and make the world generally a better place. As always, that's something to look forward to.

2 comments:

  1. I for one am a proponent for advanced computing, especially AI. With as technical as the world has become these days, the demand on the human brain's cognitive abilities have reached staggering heights. There is only so much a human can process at any given moment and mistakes are commonplace. And mistakes in the medical field are not only costly, but could potentially be deadly. Using modern technological methods, such as AI, offers hope that these types of situations can be vastly reduced or even eliminated, which would benefit everyone.

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  2. AI is as sccary as it is interesting. I like the facts you provide and the logic that goes along with it. I love your blog. It is not the everyday material I look at, but it is very much worth the read.

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