Wondering How AI is Doing Vs. Doctors? 

With all the noise around AI’s potential in medicine, you may be wondering how well it is actually performing. No one knows the real answer – for one thing it is a moving target – but the IEEE Spectrum is attempting to keep a rough scorecard using an interactive infographic, the latest published today.

Not surprisingly the answer to AI’s medical acumen varies by types of diagnosis and action taken. The IEEE effort tracked progress by date. As of August 2017, the most recent milestone, AI was tied with human doctors in diagnosing brain cancer but was not as effective coming up with the preferred treatment. Earlier this year AI was deemed better at diagnosing heart attacks, strokes, and autism. The range of conditions looked at is still quite modest.

The interactive scorecard is a quick look at some interesting areas of work. AI was deemed somewhat better at diagnosing Alzheimer’s as far back as June 2016 and AI-controlled robotic surgery was somewhat better than human surgeons on select procedures as of May 2016. No doubt there are many (conflicting) views on AI’s progress in medicine but this is an interesting, quick take.
Link to IEEE AI vs Doctors interactive infographic: https://spectrum.ieee.org/static/ai-vs-doctors