Doctors, big data and AI By Professor David Playford, Cardiologist, Perth Will doctors be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI)? The answer is a resounding, NO! However, doctors not using AI may be replaced by those who do.
Multiparameter Space – how AI thinks
AI means a machine with humanlike intelligence. Machine learning is one form of AI, which (after training) enables the software to make simple predictions based on associations it identifies within complex data. It does not rely on simple equations. A person instantly recognises a cat, dog, or horse. For a computer to recognise different animals, it requires computer training or recognition system. It could create a formula based on identifying two ears, two eyes, a nose, a mouth and some whiskers, which will reliably identify all three as being the same animal. In contrast, machine learning is analogous to training a small child. The software is shown many images of a cat (labelled ‘cat’), ‘dog’ and ‘horse’. The software performs its
Key messages
AI and big data are here Well-used AI can enhance medical practice Doctors will need to embrace and manage AI.
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own feature recognition (using an ‘artificial neural network’) identifying aspects unique to each known label. More advanced feature recognition systems can classify unlabelled data first, simplifying the AI training process. Machine learning does not involve the system being directed which features to identify. The software identifies these for itself. Exactly how and which features are used, is not revealed (‘black box’). This is similar to human learning.
We need AI Strategically applied, AI is ideally suited to organising the large amounts of seemingly disparate data
generated from medical testing. We cannot do this ourselves. Relative to a computer, humans have poor memory, poor mathematical skills, innate bias, poor recall accuracy and poor capacity to analyse big data in a multidimensional space. Humans can see in three dimensions and only imagine a multidimensional space. AI can work in as many dimensions as it is given. Humans are superior to computers in other areas (e.g. capacity for abstract thought, consciousness, empathy). It makes sense, therefore, that the best application of AI to medicine should to extend our capacity, not compete with it.
MEDICAL FORUM | INNOVATION & TRENDS ISSUE
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