How artificial intelligence could save your life
It can help diagnose illnesses early, Mojtaba Hasannezhad writes.
What images does the term “artificial intelligence” (AI) conjure up for you? Robots taking over human tasks, putting people out of work?
Machine intelligence implies serious consequences for human life, with mass unemployment being just one example.
And yet, the transformative power of AI actually might save people's lives.
AI aims to simulate the human mind's ability to learn, analyze and make decisions. An Ai-enabled machine perceives and understands its surroundings and takes appropriate actions. Thus, intelligent machines can serve humans in many respects to facilitate life and improve its quality.
One main area where AI efficiently and effectively serves humans is in providing health care, which benefits both patients and doctors. To this end, researchers have employed AI to diagnose illnesses at an early stage, to recognize such incidents as falls, allowing for a quicker response that reduces the risk of complications, and to make health care more personal where the machines serve individuals.
One of the practical applications of AI is in providing smart living assistance. Many Ai-based devices enhance seniors' and disabled people's quality of life. As a remarkable example, Concordia University, in partnership with industry, is developing a non-privacy-invasive device that plugs directly into the wall and monitors vital signs. This Ai-based device evaluates overall health by analyzing daily routines such as physical activity, home usage and the way someone walks. It recognizes emergencies, including falls and respiratory distress, along with such abnormal situations as someone spending longer time in the bathroom or in bed than usual, or having trouble moving. Using this information, the system alerts caregivers to a possible health problem or emergency, so that they can take appropriate steps.
Another Ai-based living assistant provides pregnant women with guidance at various stages of pregnancy.
The device acts as a communication platform for all of the people concerned and offers Ai-informed advice. Such technology can raise pregnant women's awareness of the need to improve their self-care, especially in rural and remote areas where access to doctors and hospitals may be more limited.
AI also was recognized recently as one of the most accurate and reliable prediction systems. Health professionals can employ AI to precisely diagnose, manage, and predict different types of diseases at an early stage and estimate the patient's survival rate. AI can do all these by analyzing the medical signals and images or biosensors. For example, metal discs attached to the scalp can detect electrical activities in the human brain. AI analyzes these electrical activities and can predict many medical events such as epileptic seizures. A fresh example of AI for COVID -19 diagnosis is an application developed by the University of Oklahoma that records one's cough and analyzes it to predict whether the person is infected.
One more example: a French startup has launched an automated Q&A assistant to make it easier for people to communicate with COVID treatment staff. Using accurate and relevant information provided by the French government and World Health Organization, it evaluates known symptoms and responds immediately to frequently asked questions. This assistant agent exchanges about three million messages daily and relieves pressure on health-care staff.
AI has played an essential role in better understanding and dealing with the coronavirus crisis. Machine learning technology allowed computers to predict the patterns and rate of the disease spread. This results-oriented technology is also used to properly screen, analyze, predict and track current and potential future patients. AI uses information from people infected with, recovered from, and who have died from the coronavirus as tracking data.
In contrast to the Hollywood-fed fears about robots ruining our lives, responsibly deployed AI has the potential to revolutionize health care for the human good.