Turn on your TV or fire up a web browser and, within just a few minutes, you'll come across a commercial for a product with some element of artificial intelligence inside it that makes it special. In consumer goods, it could be a low-end smartphone or a high-end refrigerator. You'll find plenty of software in commercial settings that "leverages the power of AI" in every sphere of human commercial activity. But of course, most claims of "AI" are little more than hyperbole, comprising a few algorithms that could have been coded by an undergraduate Computing Science freshman. The reasons are obvious enough, especially considering the fact that a business is literally better-valued if it claims to be using artificial intelligence.

At a large technology conference in Toronto this fall, Anna Goldenberg, a star in the field of computer science and genetics, described how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing medicine. Algorithms based on the AI principle of machine learning now can outperform dermatologists at recognizing skin cancers in blemish photos. They can beat cardiologists in detecting arrhythmias in EKGs. In Goldenberg's own lab, algorithms can be used to identify hitherto obscure subcategories of adult-onset brain cancer, estimate the survival rates of breast-cancer patients, and reduce unnecessary thyroid surgeries. It was a stunning taste of what's to come.