Does AI detect breast cancer better than doctors can?
Does AI detect breast cancer better than doctors can?
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Does AI detect breast cancer better than doctors can?
8 comments
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I remember, when we were learning prolog, that in the 70s, or something like, that they were already experimenting with AI and it was quite good at diagnostics. However doctors were scared of losing jobs instead of embracing it and using it as a tool. So they dropped it at the time. Hopefully they will use it as an additional tool this time and everybody profits.
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My favorite AI fact is from cancer research. The New Yorker has a great article about how an algorithm used to identify and price out pastries at a Japanese bakery found surprising success as a cancer detector. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-pastry-ai-that-learned-to-fight-cancer
8 comments
Even if it were to do pattern recognition as well as or slightly worse than a human, it's still worthwhile. As the article points out: It's basically a non-tiring, always-ready second opinion. That alone helps a lot.
One issue I could see is using it not as a second opinion, but the only opinion. That doesn't mean this shouldn't be pursued, but the incentives toward laziness and cost-cutting are obvious.
EDIT: One another potential issue is the AI detection being more accurate with certain groups (i.e. White Europeans), which could result in underdiagnosis in minority groups if the training data set doesn't include sufficient data for those groups. I'm not sure if that's likely with breast cancer detection, however.