The AI Impact
How the massive infrastructure supporting AI has the potential to transform healthcare through drug discovery and automated medical coding.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) CONTINUES TO get a lot of press. There are all sorts of examples on how it can have a positive impact on individuals, whatever the work situation is. We also read about its impact in academia. Professors are on guard for students who will use AI for term papers and the like.
AI has put in overdrive the building of data centers. An article in The New York Times pointed to 1,200 acres of abandoned farmland in Indiana where Amazon has constructed seven data centers, “each larger than a football stadium.” And according to the article, Amazon plans on building an estimated 30 more data centers on the land over the next several years. These data centers are driven by “hundreds of thousands of specialized computer chips with hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber connecting every chip and computer together.” As the article stated, this will form one giant machine intended just for artificial intelligence.
The article pointed out that the facility in Indiana will consume 2.2 gigawatts of electricity — enough to power a million homes — and it will consume millions of gallons of water to keep the chips from overheating.
I find all this intriguing. Is an investment like this going to pay off? For those who are “sold” on AI, the answer is obviously yes. But it all depends on how embedded AI becomes in the fabric of society.
In healthcare there was a shot at AI when IBM introduced Watson. This was supposed to offer a breakthrough in diagnosis and treatments, I believe in oncology especially. But it turned out there were just too many variables that Watson could not successfully address. IBM decided to drop Watson and sold it off. We don’t hear any more about Watson.
Most of the examples of AI applications in healthcare center on the medical side. The examples I have seen are about designing better drug candidates for clinical trials and setting the protocols. And there is the use of AI for early disease detection. With physicians AI is automating note taking and assisting in medical coding. But AI can also pass along erroneous information.
To date technology has had a positive impact on how we live and work. The internet is an example of this, as is the smartphone. We just could not live without these.
We are now on the cusp of new ways on how we will use and benefit from technology and how it is going to transform the lives we live. PTMR
Bill can be reached at wal@computertalk.com
