British prime minister pledges millions to develop AI as a ‘weapon’ against cancer
British Prime Minister Theresa May announced this week she will pledge millions of pounds to the fight against cancer through the development of artificial intelligence (AI), Forbes has reported.
May said in an address that using AI as a diagnostic tool to catch prostate, ovarian, lung and bowel cancers in their early stages would save 22,000 lives a year by 2033.
“Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths,” she said. “The development of smart technologies to analyze great quantities of data quickly and with a higher degree of accuracy than is possible by human beings opens up a whole new field of medical research and gives us a new weapon in our armoury in the fight against disease.”
Since AI will have the ability to cross-reference patients’ genetics, personal habits and medical records with national data, it will be able to detect cancer earlier, allowing doctors to refer their patients to specialists even before their symptoms develop.
May said her goal is to diagnose cancer “much earlier” in at least 50,000 people a year within the next 15 years.
Read the Forbes report below:
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.