Would you let an AI robot perform surgery on you?
From drug discovery to surgical robots, discover what's next for artificial intelligence in medicine.
“I think we've been living on an exponential curve for multiple decades and the thing about exponential curves is they are very misleading things,” Daphne Koller said in the “Ground Truths” podcast.
Since the emergence of ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has been on everyone’s mind. What the average person might not realize, however, is that AI isn’t just a useful tool for combing the internet or cheating on your math homework. It’s been used across a variety of STEM fields, including the fields of biology and chemistry, and its uses and effectiveness are increasing at an exponential rate. It begs the question: where do we go from here?
To date, AI has been used in epidemiology, gene editing, drug discovery and customized medicine, among other things. It can interpret greater amounts of data at faster speeds than humans can, which is increasing data analysis speeds and allowing for statistical models to be built. It’s already been incredibly useful in the field of biology, but it could go further.
According to Koller, the founder and CEO of insitro, an AI biotech company, AI will revolutionize drug development. In an interview with the “Ground Truths” podcast, she said that, “over time most drugs will have some element of AI in them,” because it’s just that helpful.
It all goes back to data collection. By generating vast amounts of data and allowing AI to interpret it, researchers can determine better drug targets and structures, saving time before moving on to clinical trials. Even then, AI can be used to help interpret the data gained from the trials, perhaps identifying off-target effects and confounding variables. The drug discovery process takes an average of 10-15 years. Using AI can knock years off, allowing life-saving treatments to reach the general public sooner.
Beyond that, the use of AI as a research method will change the way researchers work. Because AI experts don’t know the questions biologists are interested in answering, and because biologists don’t have the technical expertise needed to effectively use AI, they can’t function independently of each other. The collaboration needed can bring new ideas to the table and could lead to drug treatments that we can’t even imagine right now— another part of the exponential curve that’s defined the rise of AI.
That curve encapsulates more than drug development. Rather than focusing purely on the research that leads to better treatments, AI can be used to directly treat patients for a variety of ailments. It’s already been used in diagnostic medicine, such as radiology, to assist doctors in recognizing tumors and various injuries, but it can go even further.
AI could be used to assist in surgeries, using predictive technology to anticipate the next steps involved in a procedure and advising doctors on complications. More than that, it could operate surgical robots to perform simple tasks, and perhaps even entire surgeries further down the line.
Doctors don’t have to worry about job security just yet, though. “AI is not intended to replace radiologists—it is there to help them find a needle in the haystack,” Dr. Danielle Saunders Walsh of University of Kentucky College of Medicine told the American College of Surgeons. AI hasn’t developed far enough to diagnose patients on its own, but it functions as a useful tool for physicians in terms of treating patients.
In short, AI is an incredibly useful tool to researchers and physicians alike. However, not everyone is a fan. When I mentioned this article to a friend of mine, she was adamant that she would not let AI be involved in any surgery she would undergo, although she was fine with using it in drug development. I would be fine with an AI-directed surgery, but clearly that’s not the universal opinion. Let me know what you think.
Best,
Grace for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team
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