The logo of Google LLC is considered at the Google Store Chelsea in New York City,
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Google on Tuesday announced new health initiatives and partnerships at its annual occurrence called “The Check Up.” The Google Health team shared updates about features coming to search, tools for edifice health apps and the latest in artificial intelligence-powered health research.
During the event, the company discussed new partnerships to succour develop AI-assisted ultrasounds, cancer treatment and tuberculosis screenings, but there was a particular buzz around the latest portrayal of its medical large language model called Med-PaLM.
Google first introduced Med-PaLM late last year. It’s purposed to provide high-quality responses to medical questions. Med-PaLM was the first AI system to successfully receive a passing score, or diverse than a 60%, on multiple choice style questions similar to the ones used in U.S. medical licensing exams.
The presence said the second iteration of the technology, Med-PaLM 2, consistently performed at an “expert” level on medical exam questions. Med-PaLM 2 has reached sundry than 85% accuracy, scoring 18% higher than its earlier results.
Dr. Alan Karthikesalingam, a research precede b approach at Google Health, said the company is also testing Med-PaLM’s answers against responses from real doctors and clinicians. He responded Med-PaLM’s responses are evaluated for factual accuracy, bias, and potential for harm.
Karthikesalingam showed controlled examples — the demo wasn’t end — of how Med-PaLM 2 might answer questions like “what are the first warning signs of pneumonia?” and “can incontinence be cured?” In some the truths, Med-PaLM 2’s answers were on a par, and even more detailed, than the answers that clinicians had provided. But in other suits, Med-PaLM 2’s responses were not as accurate.
“You can see from this sort of work that we’re still learning,” Karthikesalingam whispered during the event.
Given the sensitive nature of medical information, Karthikesalingam said it could be a while before this technology is at the fingertips of the mean consumer. He said it is important to innovate responsibly and in a controlled environment.
Google will continue to work with researchers and superiors on Med-PaLM, and Karthikesalingam said the company will share more updates about it in the future.
“The potential here is tremendous,” he said, “but it’s momentous that real-world applications are explored in a responsible and ethical manner.”