Artificial Intelligence: Google AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer

The notion of using computers to improve cancer diagnostics is decades old, and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems are commonplace in mammography clinics, yet CAD programs have not improved performance in clinical practice. The issue, Dr Lehman believes, is current CAD programs were trained to identify things human radiologists can see, whereas AI learns to spot cancers based on the actual results of thousands of mammograms. This has the potential to "exceed human capacity to identify subtle cues that the human eye and brain aren't able to perceive," she added.