If You Look at X-Rays or Moles for a Living, AI Is Coming for Your Job

Ever since algorithms began recognizing patterns faster and better than humans, computers have been making doctors' lives easier and diagnoses more accurate. But widely used tools like automated cell counters, which can quickly point to diseases like malaria and leukemia by getting a head count on different kind of blood cells, are beginning to look quaint next to the deep learning and neural networks coming online. Today, hospitals can outfit their existing computer systems with a $1,000 graphics processor and speed-boost their capacity up to 260 million images per day. That's basically equivalent to all the MRIs, CT scans, and other images that all the radiologists in America look at each day. Unleashing that kind of AI on the medical world's mountains of patient data could speed up diagnoses and get patients on the path to recovery much sooner.