AI could generate insights into how an individual's ethnicity, age, gender, occupation and other factors could be linked to their health. When researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI) system to use radiological images to distinguish patients with COVID-19 pneumonia from those with other respiratory diseases, the machine found a logical – but faulty – short cut. A radiologist would weigh up features of the images. "But the AI system learned to read the dates of the scan," says Antonio Esposito, professor of radiology at Vita Salute San Raffaele University in Milan. The computer, he explains, simply put all patients who entered the hospital in 2020 into the COVID-19 category.

Despite Italy's recent cuts in scientific research and the so-called brain drain that has cast a shadow over growth prospects for the peninsula, the country has seen some notable advances in cancer research and robotics in recent months. At Milan's renowned San Raffaele University and Research Hospital, a breakthrough in the search for blood cancer cures that may also fight other cancers is inspiring optimism among some doctors. Dr. Chiara Bonini, head of the experimental hematology unit at San Raffaele University and Research Hospital, and her team have contributed to the global buzz surrounding T-cell therapy, which involves engineering the patient's immune system to fight cancer. Bonini's team has found a way to track the T-cells that can last longest in the immune system, which they believe may lead to creating a drug that can last through a patient's lifetime and prevent cancer from returning. "I have to say, the results are really, really promising," Bonini told FoxNews.com.