They say that cognitive computing, the term-du-jour for Artificial Intelligence (AI), is in the process of transforming healthcare. Billions of dollars of investment are behind the effort. Sadly, there are good reasons to believe that little good will come of it.
Cognitive Computing
Whatever it is, people are pretty sure it's BIG. Here's what a major investor and the former GM of IBM's Watson unit says about it:
$80 billion dollars! Before long, we'll be talking serious money here!
Where's this money going? Lots of places. But there's one special target for the money. The same expert tells us:
Cognitive Computing in Healthcare
Is Cognitive Computing really happening in healthcare? You betcha. IBM's Watson by itself is making major inroads into healthcare, with terrific-sounding projects at Sloan Kettering, Cleveland Clinic, MD Anderson and others. Good things are coming! For example, C. Martin Harris, MD, chief information officer of Cleveland Clinic, says:
Cleveland Clinic's collaboration with IBM is exciting because it offers us the opportunity to teach Watson to 'think' in ways that have the potential to make it a powerful tool in medicine.
And here is how the CEO of IBM explained it in an interview:
It's so hot that IBM has created a separate division for Watson, investing more than $1 billion just to get it started, and will have a headquarters group employing more than 2,000 people.
So What's the Problem?
Big investments like this should mean that there's a big problem to be solved. What is it? Not enough doctors? The doctors are too expensive, and somehow automating what they do with this mega-expensive effort will help that? The doctors aren't as smart or educated as Watson will (by presumption) be?
Someone involved should let the rest of us know.
Meanwhile, count me a skeptic. The reason is simple: there is a decades-long history of researchers and big companies making claims more modest than the ones being made for "cognitive computing," and they've all failed, technically and/or in business terms. In the end, computers do get used for more and more, as we all know from personal experience. That's a trend that will certainly continue. But "cognitive computing," i.e., AI reincarnated and re-named? Uh-uh.
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