Many of us have watched the 2014 movie “Transcendence” directed by Wally Pfister. Where the character of Dr. Will Caster achieves a colossal feat in the field of machine intelligence which could actively help humankind with superior medical knowledge and skill. In 2021 this plot may seem very futuristic, but in reality, this is not far from happening. At least we can hope to achieve many advancements seen in the movie if we get a glimpse of how artificial intelligence is rapidly changing our regular life.
What we already witness
Today, various machine learning and deep learning algorithms and other software are used to analyze the medical data of any patient and give the outcome of highly personalized treatment techniques. Diagnostic process, treatment protocol development, personalization of medicine, patient monitoring and care, and so on have their individual subfields of research. A significant number of tech enthusiasts, all over the globe are embarking to become a part of this highly sophisticated tech-industry. And various institutions are offering artificial intelligence courses in order to help them grab the opportunities. 2020 witnessed a rapid development of the COVID19 vaccine by research groups all across the planet – an impossible task eased up by the utilization of artificial intelligence.
The horizon of possibilities
The introduction of Dendral or its subsequent MYCIN in the field of organic chemistry might have astonished the whole world in the ’60s but today we are witnessing Elon Musk premiering the surgical robot which can implant brain chips in the human head. This is because we are getting used to advanced technology. AI is being used to recognize patterns in behavior and creating their own logic regarding it. And this is the key to the future for companies like IBM which is developing “Watson” at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre or the Deep Mind platform developed by Google for the use of the UK National Health Service.
The food for thought
Highly increasing potential for healing and saving patient’s lives, Increasing cost savings in maintenance, reducing the emergence of patient boarding and length of stay, optimizing staff levels, patient and staff satisfaction – these are the main positive reasons to encourage the development of A.I. oriented medical services for the healthcare establishments.
Reducing human error means reducing human labor, how fair is it?
The most significant concern is Data Privacy where medical data of patients is/are provided to the AI for the treatment process. Though the data is kept for creating and enlarging the machine’s database. Patients have every reason to be hysterical about it as these are easily accessible and can be used for their harm as well. Then comes the question regarding Automation. It has been estimated that machines are going to steal 35% of jobs from healthcare employees in the UK alone within the next 10-20 years. The third problem is “Biased Representation” by the machine. Does this sound odd? Well, machines are innocent when designed but can be good or bad depending on the data it is exposed to.
Well, whether it was the invention of fire or gunpowder, the ethical issues were always there but we have experienced both good and have always tried to overpower the bad with it.