3 Ways AI Is Changing Medicine Posted on : Sep 22 - 2017

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are turning science fiction into science fact -- and deep learning is at the heart of these advances. These AI systems have the ability to sift through scores of data, recognize patterns, and detect differences that might be imperceptible to humans. Some applications are already achieving remarkable results.

One of the more promising areas of research seeking to tap these capabilities is medicine. Companies like Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM), and NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) are using the predictive power of AI to provide doctors with additional tools to fight disease.

Artificial intelligence is giving physicians new tools to save lives. Image source: Getty Images.

Immunotherapy to fight cancer

Two-year-old start-up Gritstone Oncology has attracted both attention and investment from Alphabet Inc.'s Google Ventures. The biotech company has been studying the use of deep learning to develop highly targeted immunotherapies, which recruit the body's immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy has produced significant positive results in about 20% of cancer patients but has been unsuccessful for the remainder. Gritstone is using AI to analyze tumors at the molecular level and narrow the list of immunotherapies to match them with specific patients.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is collaborating with IBM's Watson cognitive AI supercomputer to discover new drugs and approaches for immunotherapy. Watson's consumed 25 million Medline abstracts, over a million articles from medical journals, records from 4 million patients, as well as every drug patent since 1861. The system is regularly updated with the latest available medical research data. What began as a pilot program became a full-fledged partnership when Watson suggested a novel treatment that had recently been recommended by Pfizer's team of researchers, and that therapy is currently undergoing trials. View More