Artificial intelligence in health care: preparing for the fifth Industrial Revolution

AI comprises any digital system “that mimics human reasoning capabilities, including pattern recognition, abstract reasoning and planning”.1 It includes the concept of machine learning, where machines are able to learn from experience in ways that mimic human behaviour, but with the ability to assimilate much more data and with potential for greater accuracy and speed. Machine learning is a research field that has seen recent advances due to exponential increases in computing power (a phenomenon known as Moore’s law), algorithmic coding that mimics the human cognitive process (deep learning), and access to large, linked sources of big data. The scope of AI can be specific, performing narrowly defined tasks (narrow AI) such as image interpretation, or more general, applying knowledge and skills in different contexts (general AI) such as making a diagnosis and predicting disease outcome. On the other hand, machine learning can also be designated “supervised”, in which a dataset is provided for the algorithm to evaluate its performance, or “unsupervised”, in which the machine is allowed to extract unknown potential features in developing an algorithm.