The Download: AI for cancer diagnosis, and HIV prevention

Finding and diagnosing cancer is all about spotting patterns. Radiologists use x-rays and magnetic resonance imaging to illuminate tumors, and pathologists examine tissue from kidneys, livers, and other areas under microscopes. They look for patterns that show how severe a cancer is, whether particular treatments could work, and where the malignancy may spread. Visual analysis is something that AI has gotten quite good at since the first image recognition models began taking off nearly 15 years ago. Even though no model will be perfect, you can imagine a powerful algorithm someday catching something that a human pathologist missed, or at least speeding up the process of getting a diagnosis.