• Artificial intelligence (AI) makes headlines in the mainstream news and is now regular dialogue for us all.
• A level of doom and gloom prevails, and we even see debate about the existential threat to mankind.
• It is important to be positive about AI and its tremendous potential, and we must be sure to embrace it for the betterment of all.

AI is widespread already of course, and we use it every day. You have a powerful computer in your pocket that does a whole lot more than make phone calls. And your social media and movie streaming tools are learning more about you than you may wish to imagine. All of this is powered by AI in some way or another, and its use is spreading rapidly.

Fundamentally all that AI does is fitting; it fits a model to data and then makes predictions. Usually the model is ‘trained’ on some existing data (most often the hard part) and then this trained model is used to generate useful new data and insights. Scale that basic principle to enormous models and data, and we are learning now that we can create something very powerful indeed. It is due to this scaling that AI can often surpass the human brain’s capabilities in so many, albeit very specific, scenarios.

Scientists have become adept at using AI models to accurately predict values, features, and relationships from data, to process images and master object identification, and to discover anomalies in data, images, and behaviours.

If you think about it, the diagnosis of cancers and tumours is a natural application for all of this. Hospitals worldwide are now using powerful AI-enabled tools to analyse images and data accurately and extremely quickly, allowing clinicians to save time and costs, and to enrich the lives of many.

Predict

Some hospitals are starting to use AI to more accurately predict the risk of breast cancer, in some cases where radiologists could determine no signs at all from screening. The AI model is trained on years of previous mammogram scans, combined with other data from the patient in question.

It is due to this scaling that AI can often surpass the human brain’s capabilities in so many, albeit very specific, scenarios.

It can then just ‘do its thing’ almost immediately to generate a highly accurate prediction specific to each individual, on the spot. This remarkable advantage allows the specialist to engage immediately in the most helpful and personalised discussion with the patient.

Identify

In terms of the identification of cancer, there is the challenge of labour-intensive and error-prone analysis of images, such as computer tomography (CT) scans, to spot abnormalities. Clinicians know that time is of the essence, as early identification with most cancers is crucial. Various AI tools are now being introduced to flag cancerous features which the human eye may miss. This is producing unrivalled gains in speed and accuracy and importantly is helping to address cases where there are increasingly severe staff shortages.

Treatment

Another key problem is cancer treatment. Doctors, for example, have to gauge the most effective balance for radiotherapy; they must spend hours determining where and how exactly in the body to ‘aim’ the radiotherapy so as to minimise damage to healthier parts of the body. This difficult job is now being aided with algorithms learned in AI neural networks to ensure the optimal outcome. Again, the gains in speed and accuracy mean reduced human intervention.

And finally, we should look forward with great optimism as the discovery and development of cancer-fighting drugs are dramatically improved with AI technology. Researchers are making exciting progress using AI to understand molecular structures and how best to target proteins accurately for the delivery of new drugs. This work will be particularly effective in slashing the many years it can take for new drugs to be developed.

The cancer identification and treatment landscape is quietly but rapidly transforming. These extremely difficult challenges are of course a welcome and positive application for our exciting new AI era. A cure is not imminent, but the power of AI will enrich lives by some significant margin and must be put to use as widely as possible.

Dr James Henderson is a freelance writer based in the UK