While the use of artificial intelligence to predict deaths may sound ludicrous, researchers are trying to establish the technology's potential in alerting physicians and medical professionals of patients that are at greater risks of dying in the near future. This way, doctors can administer the right end-of-life approach in dealing with the patients and their loved ones. A team at Stanford University has examined the use of artificial intelligence in palliative care in their paper "Improving Palliative Care with Deep Learning" published on the arXiv preprint server. Researchers used the machine learning technique called deep learning, which utilizes neural networks to filter and learn from massive data, in the study. What they did is come up with a model and fed its deep learning algorithm with data from the Electronic Health Records of 2 million adult and child patients admitted to either Stanford Hospital or Lucile Packard Children's hospital.

Using artificial intelligence to predict when patients may die sounds like an episode from the dystopian science fiction TV series "Black Mirror." But Stanford University researchers see this use of AI as a benign opportunity to help prompt physicians and patients to have necessary end-of-life conversations earlier. Many physicians often provide overly rosy estimates about when their patients will die and delay having the difficult conversations about end-of-life options. That understandable human tendency can lead to patients receiving unwanted, expensive and aggressive treatments in a hospital at their time of death instead of being allowed to die more peacefully in relative comfort. The alternative being tested by a Stanford University team would use AI to help physicians screen for newly-admitted patients who could benefit from talking about palliative care choices.