Our vision for artificial intelligence is broad and ambitious. While we've seen plenty of dystopian tropes, pop culture is full of hopeful examples of what we believe artificial intelligence could do for us, ranging from operating systems that cure loneliness to assistants that go well beyond human physiological limits.
Perhaps the most famous fictional AI is Roy Batty—an impossibly strong soldier android (or "replicant" in the "Blade Runner" films). But what has made the character enduring is not so much about his superhuman capabilities but what hewed him closer to our most core desire: to live, and to live longer.
At this point, however, many consumer AI tools fall way, way short of the possibilities that science fiction imagined. In medicine, though, an AI program now widely used at Penn Medicine can give us some of the life-sustaining help that Batty wanted most.
Penn AInSights is an AI-guided imaging system, meant to help in crafting a better, more precise three-dimensional view of internal organs. Its impact in the field of radiology has led to it winning the CIO 100 award.
And under its root is a programme actually. It is a clinical support tool for physicians. Physicians can look at images of people's livers, spleens, kidneys and more to determine with some exactitude if the organs are showing any abnormal traits that could shorten lives.
Armed with this precise information about whether a patient has developed something akin to fatty liver disease, or is at warning of diabetes, or that their kidneys will fail over time, Penn Medicine's clinical staff can take steps to help patients sooner and more effectively than ever before, potentially adding years to their lives.