SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Bill Paseman has two choices for treating his rare and deadly kidney cancer: do nothing or let 200 scientists from around the world analyze his DNA to uncover clues for promising new treatments. That's because there are no effective treatments for his late-stage papillary renal-cell carcinoma type 1. Little is known about the genetic drivers of papillary renal-cell carcinomas, which account for just 15 to 20 percent of adult kidney cancers. And because the patient market is small, pharmaceutical companies don't focus on the condition. So this past weekend, 150 computational biologists, geneticists, oncologists, artificial intelligence researchers, and computer developers from top universities gathered to analyze the genomes of Paseman's kidney tumor and his blood – with Paseman present.

As the CEO of Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence, Pete Kane has founded multiple startups such as Healthcare Minnesota and Startup Venture Loft, which led to his most recent collaborative creation Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence. The community group uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to collaborate on research projects that can make landmark discoveries in science and healthcare. Silicon Valley AI will host the Genomics Hackathon from Friday through Sunday at Google Launchpad in San Francisco. In the future, I believe AI will play a leading role in areas like drug discovery, personalized medicine and cancer genomics.

As the CEO of Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence, Pete Kane has founded multiple startups such as Healthcare Minnesota and Startup Venture Loft, which led to his most recent collaborative creation Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence. The community group uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to collaborate on research projects that can make landmark discoveries in science and healthcare. Silicon Valley AI will host the Genomics Hackathon from Friday through Sunday at Google Launchpad in San Francisco. We spoke to Kane to get the skinny on what AI means for the future, and whether we should be afraid of the machines turning on us. Why should people be excited about AI? AI is exciting because we're all exploring it at the same pace.