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Ben Coleman
Perspectives Editor
Most newfound technology will have plenty of people puzzled. Sometimes that puzzlement is good, and sometimes it is bad. This confusion comes from the undetermined benefits that the newfound technology may bring, and what the human race may face. When it comes to Artificial Intelligence, these feelings of worry can become very real since the development of this technology has become very aggressive recently. The development of AI will not only benefit society, but it will also change it indefinitely.
Artificial Intelligence in our health care system will not only help us today, but it will help us for years to come. In recent weeks, it has been discovered that AI can be utilized to design and create new protein structures. When it comes to DeepMind’s AlphaFold2 AI algorithm, the computer was able to predict over 200 million new protein structures. These protein structures in essence are amino acids that are linked together in a chain-like structure. Given that humans are unable to predict a large sequence of these structures, AlphaFold2 is able to predict these large sequences and still learn new ones at the same time.
Another interesting part of this is that AI will be able to help us find out which proteins or molecules bond with each other. By doing so, this will not only predict the next cure for illnesses, but it will also learn potential issues that may arise in the future and how we can prevent them. It has been shown that individuals’ health outcomes are influenced by at least 20% of their at-home behavior, 30% of genetics, and 40-50% of their mental and physical behaviors. These numbers can be given to a chatbot with very specific criteria which can help choose the best path for treatment.
Another clear benefit of the world of AI in the medical field is the assistance of doctors. AI will not only help doctors prioritize patient impact, but it will also create immediate diagnostics of patients, have a reduction in human errors, and help create an enhanced experience for the patient(s). This will all be done while the AI system compiles information and learns at the same time. Take Google’s Bard chatbot for an example. Google fed Bard with tons of information from the internet, and the bot started to learn. As interesting as this sounds, the more interesting part is that Bard was able to learn a different language completely on its own without the help of anyone at Google.
This is an interesting feat of development because as humans, it inherently takes a while to learn something of great magnitude. For example, it typically takes a human over 5 years to learn a complex protein chain. AI on the other hand can have this done in hours, thus limiting downtime, and creating a fast-paced environment for individuals in need, leading to benefits for patients.
When we look at AI’s predictive benefits for the human body, the algorithmic makeup of the program can predict things well before they happen. This is similar to the Apple Watch. The predictive elements of the watch have been known to predict if an individual is about to experience a heart attack or a rapid change in their body’s physical nature. I believe that within the next ten years, we will see AI’s predictive behaviors start to roll out into the things that we utilize every day. Phones, cars, watches, and anything in between.
After diving into AI, we can see less than 1% of the AI iceberg. The potential for chatbots and Artificial Intelligence is beyond the magnitude of what we can imagine right now. I believe that we will see AI come into full swing in the next ten years which would and could vastly impact societies around the globe. The main issue as a society is preventing AI from falling into the wrong hands and being used for the destruction of societies. This however is up to us humans. In the future, I am optimistic that we will see a great improvement in life around the Earth with the use of AI.
The Candor 