A major new report on the state of artificial intelligence (AI) has just been released.

A major new report on the state of artificial intelligence (AI) has just been released. Think of it as the AI equivalent of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, in that it identifies where AI is at today, and the promise and perils in view.

From language generation and molecular medicine to disinformation and algorithmic bias, AI has begun to permeate every aspect of our lives.

The report argues that we are at an inflection point where researchers and governments must think and act carefully to contain the risks AI presents and make the most of its benefits.

A century-long study of AI

The report comes out of the AI100 project, which aims to study and anticipate the effects of AI rippling out through our lives over the course of the next 100 years. The study was performed in 2021, and three more years have passed.

AI has only just begun. We confront it every day on the telephone, in chats, on the internet, when we drive our car, with image recognition and video surveillance of all public places.  Police use it for investigations and witnessing crimes at a later date.  Our smart speakers listen all the time,  although they only respond if you use a 'trigger word" such as. "Alexa'.

All of these uses are annoying and frustrating, however, it will become much worse when AI makes decisions without human oversight.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY   invited leading thinkers from several institutions to begin a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live, and play. 

This effort, called the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is the brainchild of computer scientist and Stanford alumnus Eric Horvitz who, among other credits, is a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

"We won’t be putting the genie back in the bottle," he said. "AI technology is progressing along so many directions and progress is being driven by so many different organizations that it is bound to continue. AI100 is an innovative and far-sighted response to this trend–an opportunity for us as a society to determine the path of our future and not to simply let it unfold unawares."

The unknown danger of an AI obsessing over a problem ignoring the goal it has been assigned. This is called Wireheading

Wireheading is akin to the high of a psychedelic and can be compared to hallucinating

Uses for Artificial Intelligence

There are already many practical uses for AI, some very beneficial and some annoying.

Dangers of Artificial Intelligence Automation-spurred job loss Deepfakes, Privacy violations, Algorithmic bias caused by bad data, Socioeconomic inequality, Market volatility, Weapons automatization, and Uncontrollable self-aware AI.

Is the horse out of the barn? The longer we wait to regulate the worse it will be.

                                                         Is AI in the box?

The One Hundred-Year Study on AI

 https://garymarklevin.substack.com/p/amazon-sued-for-one-medical-malpractice

Healthcare is scaling and failing as corporations’ greed adds to rising healthcare costs.

The lawsuit alleges Amazon’s health clinic was “reckless and negligent” in its care of a 45-year-old California man who died after seeking help via telemedicine.

By Caroline O'Donovan

One week before Christmas 2023, Philip Tong logged onto a video consultation with healthcare clinic Amazon One Medical and said that he was short of breath, coughing up blood, and that his feet were turning blue. The provider told him to buy an inhaler, according to an October lawsuit.

 Hours later, Tong collapsed in an emergency room in Oakland, California, according to a complaint filed against the hospital and One Medical. He died the same day.

Whether this case will rise to the level of a formal court adjudication remains open to be seen. Malpractice liability usually resorts to the standard usual and customary practice in the community.

Minute Clinics at CVS and other pharmacies have risen and fallen failing to create a substantial following and are ‘bottom dwellers’ according to most health care providers, except for some nurse practitioners looking for employment ‘elsewhere’.

This is an important case in the healthcare marketplace and should the plaintiff prevail it can set a precedent and warn against further investments in this type of delivery service for healthcare.

UHG ignores ethical considerations for using AI to determine Prior Authorization Denials

 

The nation’s largest health insurance company pressured its medical staff to cut off payments for seriously ill patients in lockstep with a computer algorithm’s calculations, denying rehabilitation care for older and disabled Americans as profits soared, a STAT investigation has found.

UnitedHealth Group has repeatedly said its algorithm, which predicts how long patients will need to stay in rehab, is merely a guidepost for their recoveries. But inside the company, managers delivered a much different message: that the algorithm was to be followed precisely so payments could be cut off by the date it predicted.

Denied by AI: How Medicare Advantage plans to use algorithms to cut off care for Seniors in need.  Internal documents show that a UnitedHealth subsidiary called NaviHealth set a target for 2023 to keep the rehab stays of patients in Medicare Advantage plans within 1% of the days projected by the algorithm. Former employees said missing the target for patients under their watch meant exposing themselves to discipline, including possible termination, regardless of whether the additional days were justified under Medicare coverage rules.

United Health Care to Limit Treatment for Autism

Ethical and moral guardrails are lagging behind in the use of artificial intelligence in health care. The United States is lagging behind other countries (EU) in regulating this segment of information technology.  Specifically human oversight.

The European Union (EU) has taken significant steps to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) with a focus on ethical considerations. Here are some key points regarding the EU regulations on AI ethics:

 1. **AI Act** The EU's proposed AI Act aims to create a legal framework for AI technologies, ensuring they are safe and respect fundamental rights. Key aspects include:

- **Risk-based classification:** AI systems are categorized by risk levels: unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal. Unacceptable risk systems (like social scoring by governments) are banned.

- **High-risk AI systems:** These are subject to strict requirements, including risk assessments, transparency, and accountability measures.

Ethical Guidelines**

The EU has published guidelines emphasizing the following principles:

Human agency and oversight:** AI should augment human abilities and not undermine them.

- **Technical robustness and safety:** Systems should be reliable and secure.

- **Privacy and data governance:** AI should protect personal data and privacy.

- **Transparency:** AI operations should be understandable and traceable.

- **Fairness:** Avoid discrimination and ensure inclusivity.

- **Environmental and societal well-being:** Promote sustainability and societal benefits.

The proposed regulations recommend setting up national supervisory bodies to monitor AI compliance and encourage best practices.

The EU's approach to AI ethics emphasizes a balanced framework that promotes innovation while safeguarding fundamental rights and societal values. These regulations are still evolving, and ongoing discussions will shape their final form.

STAT+ Exclusive Story

New AI solves math and science problems faster than supercomputers

This new AI framework DIMON stands for Diffeomorphic Mapping Operator Learning. 

Engineers design safer cars, more resilient spacecraft, and stronger bridges using complex math problems that drive the underlying processes. Similarly, doctors use mathematical models to predict heart problems with greater accuracy.

These problems, called partial differential equations, are the backbone of engineering and science. But solving them can take days, even weeks, especially for complex shapes.

Now, Johns Hopkins University researchers have created a new AI model called DIMON. It can solve these complex equations thousands of times faster, right on your personal computer.

“While the motivation to develop it came from our own work, this is a solution that we think will have generally a massive impact on various fields of engineering because it’s very generic and scalable,” said Natalia Trayanova, biomedical engineering and medicine professor from the Johns Hopkins University. 

Tested on heart digital twins

Partial differential equations are common mathematical problems. These equations help convert real-world scenarios into mathematical models to predict future changes in objects or environments.

However, solving these big math problems is typically a job for supercomputers. Things are becoming easy with the arrival of artificial intelligence. 

This new AI framework DIMON stands for Diffeomorphic Mapping Operator Learning. 

The team tested DIMON on over 1,000 digital computer heart models of real patients. 

Interestingly, the model accurately predicted electrical signal pathways in diverse heart structures.

In this demonstration, the researchers used partial differential equations to investigate cardiac arrhythmia. This happens when the human heart beats irregularly because of messed-up electrical signals.

Using heart digital twin models, researchers can predict the risk of this life-threatening condition and suggest appropriate treatments.

“We’re bringing novel technology into the clinic, but a lot of our solutions are so slow it takes us about a week from when we scan a patient’s heart and solve the partial differential equations to predict if the patient is at high risk for sudden cardiac death and what is the best treatment plan,” explained Trayanova, who directs the Johns Hopkins Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation. 

The new AI significantly speeds up heart disease predictions, reducing calculation time from hours to 30 seconds. It can be done using a simple computer, making it more practical for everyday clinical use.

However, don't expect your cardiologist to use this now. It is in early theoretical development.  

DIMON is not for the weak of heart or mind. “For each problem, DIMON first solves the partial differential equations on a single shape and then maps the solution to multiple new shapes. This shape-shifting ability highlights its tremendous versatility,” said Minglang Yin, a Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering Postdoctoral Fellow who developed the platform.

Gary M. Levin M.D.

New AI solves math and science problems faster than supercomputers