The Google DeepMind Challenge, where man battled
machine in a game of Baduk, or Go, highlighted
the latest developments in artificial intelligence
and sparked interest in its potential applications.
Park Se-young looks into how the field of
medicine could benefit from smarter machines.
The medical field is undergoing revolutionary
changes with the help of the latest technological
advances.
For example, major hospitals are switching
to electronic health recordkeeping systems.
"MD Anderson realized early on that to really
get the full patient experience it had to
be electronic.
We had to move from a paper-based system to
an electronic system."
Growing demand for products like these has
fueled innovation at tech companies like IBM
and Google.
The two tech giants are exploring the limits
of artificial intelligence and bringing their
inventions into the medical field.
IBM has a long history with AI.
Its chess-playing computer Deep Blue defeated
a world champion in 1997, and its super computer
Watson became the winner of a quiz show in
2011.
Its Watson Health system synthesizes data
from medical records, scans and other sources
to help doctors identify ailments so they
can treat patients more efficiently.
Google, with its huge database of information,
is quickly following suit.
Its Baduk-playing computer program AlphaGo
recently threw the spotlight back on the prospects
for artificial intelligence.
Building on this research, Google launched
DeepMind Health last month to create apps
for medical professionals.
Park Se-young, Arirang News.
