Saving Lives and Solving Murders
Many television viewers were introduced to AI when an IBM computer named “Watson” competed on the popular knowledge-based game show Jeopardy! in January 2011. The computer defeated two opponents who had distinguished themselves among the show’s most expert human champions. Despite the wealth of human knowledge it was up against, Watson displayed an extraordinary ability to understand and answer questions posed in natural human language, beyond what most viewers had ever before seen in a computer.
Watson’s creators, however, had loftier hopes for the technology. The AI that won a game show is now being used to improve successful patient diagnosis rates in hospitals. Forbes magazine reported in 2013 that nurses who use Watson as a resource now take the AI program’s advice 90 percent of the time.
And Watson is not alone in the field of life-saving artificial intelligence. Researchers at Stanford University have developed an AI system that within hours of a premature baby’s birth can determine the child’s risk of life-threatening complications. At the University of Tokyo, researchers are developing AI systems to identify subtle clues in swimmers’ body movements to warn lifeguards when even one swimmer in a large crowd is about to drown.
AI systems are even being used to solve murders. In the Netherlands, an artificial intelligence system called Bonaparte solved a 13-year-old murder case by sifting through DNA evidence and familial connections to identify the killer, who later confessed to the crime.
Indeed, we are increasingly surrounded by artificial intelligence systems, which are having a say in larger and larger parts of our lives, making decisions for us—and about us—behind the scenes.