As Large As Life: Using Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Care

Using artificial intelligence to analyze huge stores of information known as big data boosts the effectiveness of cancer diagnosis and treatment. In 2014, three years after the artificial intelligence system that IBM calls Watson thrashed two humans in a game of "Jeopardy!", the company began selling Watson's services as a virtual oncologist, an intelligent machine that would look at patient records and make treatment recommendations. Some predicted that Watson would clobber oncologists for much the same reason it bested game show contestants --it could retain more data than any person. Before recommending treatment, it could "remember" every word from every cancer study ever published and consider every finding that applied to a particular patient. In reality, according to a 2017 investigation published by the news website Stat, Watson struggled "with the basic step of learning about different kinds of cancers" and disappointed many of the hospitals and practices that purchased its services, sometimes by recommending "unsafe and incorrect" cancer treatments.