Second-opinion software: Microsoft's Eric Horvitz on how AI can save patients' lives

Someday soon, your physician may be second-guessed by an artificial intelligence program – and you'll probably be healthier for it, according to Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz. Horvitz, a research fellow and managing director of Microsoft Research's lab in Redmond, Wash., laid out the statistics to support second-opinion software during today's White House workshop on how AI can bring social benefits. The workshop in Washington, D.C., was the second in a series of four sessions aimed at helping the Office of Science and Technology Policy formulate future initiatives on artificial intelligence. Microsoft Research is pursuing projects in more than 60 areas of computer science, including AI, but Horvitz focused on two projects in particular that brought AI tools to bear on health care challenges. One project targets medical errors, which Horvitz said are thought to cause more than 400,000 deaths annually in the United States.