An artificial intelligence system that was originally designed to distinguish between different types of pastry in Japan in 2013 was adapted to identify cancers, The New Yorker reports. The system, called "BakeryScan," was first launched back in 2013 by Hisashi Kambe, a computer systems engineer. The system, which is still around and can be bought for roughly $20,000, gives local bakeries a hand by doing basic tasks like distinguishing croissants from bear claws. It can cut down on employee training and make the checkout process more hygienic, according to the company. But several years later, a doctor from the Louis Pasteur Center for Medical Research in Kyoto realized that the clever tool could be used for a very different purpose as well: recognizing cancerous cells in microscope slides.

Deep learning and artificial intelligence are on their way to bringing about a sea change in how we use computers in medicine. Neural networks have the power to work toward solutions using approaches they devise on their own -- and it gives them incredible problem-solving capabilities. You can't exactly plug more RAM into a human brain (yet), but you can combine a supercomputer cluster with neural networks that do diagnostic image processing. This mighty partnership gives the ability to apply the collective wisdom and insight of doctors and scientists worldwide to the collective processing power of every core in the cluster.