Though medical science may still be years away from growing a heart outside of the human body, the scientists at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) are getting closer every day to reproducing and perfecting many of the tissues, blood vessels and other organs of the human body. Engineering laboratory-grown organs to implant into humans is why the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) exists. After all, they were the first in the world to do it in 1999 with engineered bladder tissue. What seemed like science fiction just a few years ago is happening now at WFIRM. Touted as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies, the physicians and scientists at WFIRM at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina are developing organs and tissues for virtually every part of the human body as they attempt to engineer more than 30 different replacement tissues and organs and to develop healing cell therapies--all with the same goal--to cure, rather than just treat, disease. "Our goal is to apply the principles of regenerative medicine to repair or replace diseased tissues and organs," Atala said.

Last week, Elon Musk dashed off 125 characters announcing a remarkably ambitious plan to send Amtrak to an early grave. "Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins," he proclaimed in a tweet. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter. Yet something about this particular moonshot seemed off.

With every step we advance in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), it seems we can't help but ask, "Is this something that will bring us closer to'Westworld?'" Since it premiered last year, HBO's hit sci-fi series has become the mainstream benchmark for AI systems. In the show's fictional world, robots can think and function like humans, and they are nearly indistinguishable from their human counterparts. It has created this sense of wonder at what's possible given today's quickly advancing technology. However, it has also reinforced how very far we still have to go before we can create AIs with the same level of sophistication. Taken at face value, we know "Westworld" hosts are incredibly advanced AIs that probably have some sort of deep learning mechanism that allows them to quickly respond to their environments.

Health care executives from IBM Watson and Athenahealth athn debated that question onstage at Fortune's inaugural Brainstorm Health conference Tuesday. In addition to partnering with Celgene celg to better track negative drug side effects, IBM ibm is applying its cognitive computing AI technology to recommend cancer treatment in rural areas in the U.S., India, and China, where there is a dearth of oncologists, said Deborah DiSanzo, general manager for IBM Watson Health. For example, IBM Watson could read a patient's electronic medical record, analyze imagery of the cancer, and even look at gene sequencing of the tumor to figure out the optimal treatment plan for a particular person, she said. "That is the promise of AI--not that we are going to replace people, not that we're going to replace doctors, but that we really augment the intelligence and help," DiSanzo said. Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, however, disagreed.

Health care executives from IBM Watson and Athenahealth athn debated that question onstage at Fortune's inaugural Brainstorm Health conference Tuesday. In addition to partnering with Celgene celg to better track negative drug side effects, IBM ibm is applying its cognitive computing AI technology to recommend cancer treatment in rural areas in the U.S., India, and China, where there is a dearth of oncologists, said Deborah DiSanzo, general manager for IBM Watson Health. For example, IBM Watson could read a patient's electronic medical record, analyze imagery of the cancer, and even look at gene sequencing of the tumor to figure out the optimal treatment plan for a particular person, she said. "That is the promise of AI--not that we are going to replace people, not that we're going to replace doctors, but that we really augment the intelligence and help," DiSanzo said. Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, however, disagreed.