Microsoft's AI Model Identifies When Medical Treatments Harm More Than Help

Microsoft researchers have built an AI model that can identify when medical treatments meant to help patients actually ended up harming them. The model, Dead-end Discovery, uses the reinforcement learning ML framework – where an agent learns from trial and error – because it is well-suited to health care. Health care is characterized by sequential decision-making: After looking at a patient's condition, providers apply a treatment and observe the results. If the patient improves, the process repeats. Medical care today is characterized by a focus on what to do to help the patient recover.