Could Artificial Intelligence improve healthcare?

Are we awaking a new consciousness? 

Every now and then there are a few decisions that are made which could possibly impact the course of humanity. In the past we have seen these decisions not only benefiting mankind but also to enable various segments of community embrace new ideologies and radical thinking. In mid December2015 an important announcement was made. Open AI (opensource artificial intelligence initiative) received $ 1 billion in funding from Elon Musk & Sam Altman. Why? 

John McCarthy coined Artificial Intelligence in 1955, what has changed since then? 60 years later the collation of data, the power of computer processing and the large range of robust algorithms are a few of the major contributions to allow for development of subfields, which contribute to artificial intelligence development. The technology being developed on open source will allow healthcare companies to harness its power to deliver positive patient outcomes. 

How will this change healthcare or lifestyle choices?

With every phone has digital assistants integrated – Siri for Apple, Cortana for Windows, etc. These assistants feed information on your preferences and in turn build neural networks based on deep learning parameters and natural language processing. The same evolution that is taking place in other industries is now affecting healthcare. With genetic profiling every one of us has our information not only for disease but expressions, which can be linked to character traits. 

A recent study in Sweden found a gene associated with violence, which could in turn help social teams work with possible future offenders. Yet sifting through all this data and understanding a human not only with respect to potential of disease, but also with character and goal perspectives would be too complex for humans to do. This is where the possibility of artificial intelligence could step in and evaluate each individual based on a plethora of data. 

It could go so far that personal health devices such as activity trackers, individualised genomic data and artificial intelligence based on deep learning could even help individuals make serious lifestyle choices such as job preferences, activities and possibly even partner selection. 

What does freedom mean in diagnostics and treatment?

When Tim Berners-Lee brought together the World Wide Web and how documents could be shared he made a conscious choice to let its benefits be shared openly with the world. The same is happening in the healthcare space where information is openly available for healthcare providers and the availability of genomic data covers not only humans but also infective organisms, pharmacogenomic interactions based on gene expression and a host of other information. 

Along with standard imaging, clinical workflows based on evidence based medicine, and integrated patient records, artificial intelligence would assist to pinpoint an accurate diagnosis and its precise treatment with the right drug. Each clinician would be able to give precise tailored treatment and healthcare institutions would focus on a positive patient experience and value addition in terms of care. 

In summary the openAI movement will not only shape how humans will develop artificial intelligence but also decide how they will work with such a technology for their own benefit.  Of course the world understands the importance of such technology not just by its availability but also by creating guidelines on its use. As for the area of healthcare, I believe that the greater good has to be looked at as fear could hamper progress. Inclusion of such technology is a must. 

The openAI initiative will change our world. We need to make sure it is for the better as others have done before.