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I think it is safe to say that the future of technology was the ongoing theme for our Minds and Machines class, if not throughout the class but definitely towards the latter end. We spent a lot of time in debates and discussing the potential aspects of future technology while also taking the time to criticize what seems to others as a great technological development. Keeping the theme going to end the semester in a uniform way, Id like to talk about the future of question answering computer systems in the medical field, better known as a form of IBM Watson.

 

What is IBM Watson?

IBM Watson is a robot constructed with artificial intelligence to perform a variety of question answering tasks. Through machine learning, the robot Is able to grasp information inputted directly. When it comes to hoe Watson answers questions presented to him, he compares and contrasts millions of pieces of data to hunt for a pattern in hops to find an accurate precise answer to the question at hand. Metaphorically, because the robot is based off of machine learning, the engineers have to write down the recipe in a way with exact measurements in order for the machine to successfully bake the cake. If the measurements are not exact, the cake will not turn out right resulting in failure. IBM Watson unlocks the value lets say your companies data by archiving it and the making the data work in new profound ways.

 

IBM Watson Health

There are many needs that face the healthcare industry today that don’t have the ability to be necessarily solved based on how we have been doing things previously in medicine. There are any examples of why IBM Watson would prosper in the health field, however I am just going to solely focus on the one topic of biased decision making. With data coming from journals, research, peers, industry groups, tests and trials, experts may not be able to keep pace with the rapid flow of new information. Reasons like inexperienced staff, diagnostic errors, insignificant access to patient data, decisions made without evidence based research, and the inability to analyze data for correlation are among the countless reasons why more companies are thinking about making the change to IBM Watson as a main form of diagnosing in medical institutions.

 

Why should you care and what does that mean for the future of medicine?

You should care for one because I must say I am confident that this will be the future of medicine. There are countless ethical dilemmas that must be worked out of course, but just based off the way our society is and the direction it is going, I truly see IBM Watson as a determining factor of the future of medicine. In terms of why you should care in comparison to the current way medical diagnosing is done, making decisions without the benefit of data can damage outcomes with missed diagnoses, improper treatments and optimized action plans. In addition to this, proper treatment ultimately means less money because of the added factor of efficiency.

 

Issues

There are many issues around the usage of BM Watson in the medical field, but I more wanted to focus on the reality of it becoming a part of the future. To give a list, issues include: the lack of simple human skills learned early on baffle researchers, not taking into account the complexity of the brain, lack of human context, computer language(binary code not English) speaks binary code not English), Watson can’t hear, and lastly, computers can’t understand parables.

 

Glossary

Artificial intelligence: the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.

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Machine learning: is the scientific study of algorithms and statistical models that computer systems use to effectively perform a specific task without using explicit instructions, relying on patterns and inference instead

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Biased decision making: also known as cognitive bias – is the tendency to make decisions or take action in an illogical way.

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Binary code: a coding system using the binary digits 0 and 1 to represent a letter, digit, or other character in a computer or other electronic device.