DeepMind’s AI can detect over 50 eye diseases as accurately as a doctor.

This is the point at which the risk from medical AI becomes much greater. Our inability to explain exactly how AI systems reach certain decisions is well-documented. And, as we’ve seen with self-driving car crashes, when humans take our hands off the wheel, there’s always a chance that a computer will make a fatal error in judgment.

Source: Vincent, J. (2018). DeepMind’s AI can detect over 50 eye diseases as accurately as a doctor.

This is just lazy. “When humans take their hands off the wheel…”? OK, then who is responsible for all the death and suffering that happens when humans have their hands on the wheel? Thinking about this for 3 seconds should make it clear that human beings are responsible for almost all human deaths. Getting to the point where we take our hands off the wheel (and off the scalpel, and off the prescription charts, and off the stock exchange) could be the safest thing we will ever do.

Also, DeepMind has moved on from only being able to diagnose diabetic retinopathy, to accurately identifying 50 different conditions of the eye. Tomorrow, it’ll be more.