Every year many women are diagnosed with breast cancer and research further reveals that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer in women. The tech giant Google has bested many technology companies with their innovative findings. This time Google has developed an artificial intelligence system that claims to detect the presence of breast cancer more accurately than doctors. A study conducted to test the accuracy of the AI system was published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday. Google developed the system in collaboration with the cancer researchers. The program has been developed by detecting cancer using countless mammograms from women in the United Kingdom and the United States. According to this research, the system detects cancer more accurately than human radiologists. Research shows that initially the system gave fewer false positives and false negatives, for example, test results indicate cancer is present whereas it is not; similarly, existing cancer goes undetected. Although later, compared to human radiologists the system reduced the false positives by 5.7% for the US subjects and 1.2% for the UK subjects. The system was provided with lesser information in comparison to humans to work with, yet they provided more accurate results than the human. The authors of this study stated,
“The performance of even the best clinicians leaves room for improvement. AI may be uniquely poised to help with this challenge.”
Google has no plans of wiping out human radiologists with the introduction of this new technology rather they believe that it will help the radiologists detect better results. According to Google, there are many cases where the human detects something but the machine fails and vice versa, with the AI system overall results, it will be strengthened. In 2018 according to a report by the Royal College of Radiologists, around 75% of the UK radiology department directors feel there are not enough clinical radiologists to deliver a safe and efficient level of patient care. AI Detection is not limited to breast cancer only, the study also features Google research on how AI can help doctors to predict lung cancer more precisely and also prevent serious eye diseases.
