Major breakthroughs are now possible with less data than ever thanks to artificial intelligence, Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Tuesday. Artificial intelligence "learns" patterns by ingesting typically large amounts of data and then using that information to complete a task, like sorting data into different buckets. Porat said less data is required than before to see impactful results from AI, citing a recent example of medical breakthrough aided by Alphabet technology. Google, which is owned by Alphabet, claimed in an October blog post it had created an AI that could "correctly distinguish a slide with metastatic cancer from a slide without cancer 99% of the time." Google said the breakthrough could indicate that AI could play a role in repetitive diagnostic procedures, freeing up time for doctors to focus on more difficult tasks.