How AI-powered scientific revolution is helping to transform medicine

Artificial intelligence may present some risks but the potential to do good is also huge (Picture: Johannes Simon/Getty Images)Artificial intelligence may present some risks but the potential to do good is also huge (Picture: Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
Artificial intelligence may present some risks but the potential to do good is also huge (Picture: Johannes Simon/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Scientists used machine learning to discover early warning signs of conditions like Alzheimer’s dementia, type 2 diabetes and heart disease

In science-fiction films, robots tend to be the stuff of nightmares – like the Terminator, Hal 9000 from A Space Odyssey, and the antagonists in The Mitchells vs the Machines. Only rarely are they as virtuous as WALL-E. However, for all our fears, AI still represents an ongoing and game-changing scientific breakthrough of mind-numbingly large proportions.

In one new development, a team of scientists, including some from Edinburgh University, used machine-learning to analyse medical data from 50,000 people on the UK Biobank. The study enabled them to accurately identify protein patterns that provided early warning signs of conditions like Alzheimer’s dementia, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, in some cases up to ten years before diagnosis.

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More work is required, but it holds out the prospect of a simple blood test flagging up the risk of a particular problem, enabling people to make lifestyle changes or for early medical intervention, which is often cheaper and more effective. The effects on healthcare could be transformative.

So while robots are a bit scary, they can also be a good friend to humanity.

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