Artificial Intelligence (AI) is beginning to change the practice of medicine and will increasingly play a major role in the management of health and cancer. AI is the development of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between language. The computer systems are able to learn and adapt without following explicit instructions, by using algorithms and statistical models to analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data.

The most recent example gaining attention in the news is ChatGPT – a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology. ChatGPT allows human-like conversations and much more.  The model can answer questions, and assist with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code.

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence already making an impact in oncology. Broadly defined, machine learning is the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior and perform complex tasks in a way that is similar to how humans solve problems.

AI is beginning to play a vital role in cancer care

In November 2022, Google announced an AI algorithm designed to help screen for breast cancer that will now be part of commercial mammograms. Google licensed its AI technology to iCAD, a medical technology company that provides breast cancer detection services to health care facilities around the world.

In a study published in the medical journal Nature Google’s algorithm for mammograms performed better than radiologists. The study involved mammograms from more than 91,000 women in the U.S. and the U.K. In the U.S. Google’s system lowered the false positive rate by 6%, and in the U.K. by 1.2%. The machine learning algorithm also decreased false positives by 9% in the U.S. and nearly 3% in the U.K.

And that’s just the beginning, machine learning has the ability to improve over time – the more data from mammograms that are fed into the algorithm, the better the algorithm gets at detecting the smallest differences that distinguish normal tissue from potentially cancerous tissue. Women receiving mammograms using the AI-based system will have their information fed back into the algorithm

Potential advantages with the Google AI algorithm.

• The AI-based system could make mammography more widely available around the world.
• The system could replace radiologists or at least relieve the burden on radiologists, since many nations require two readings of a mammography image.
• Cost of care could be reduced.
• Early detection will be continuously improved.

Machine-based learning will begin to recognize patterns that human eyes can’t see which should further reduce the False Negative rates of the algorithm ultimately leading to improved care.