AI to bring high-quality and affordable healthcare to people: Google

New Delhi, Nov 5:  The next generation of AI and large language models (LLMs) represents a dramatic shift in capability and promises to bring high-quality, affordable care and health to people around the world, with equity and inclusion, Google has stressed.

Dr Karen DeSalvo, Chief Health Officer at Google, said that AI has the potential to transform the health of people on a planetary scale akin to the discovery of penicillin.

“If developed boldly and responsibly, AI stands to be a powerful force for health equity, improving outcomes for everyone, everywhere,” he said in a blog post.

Google is deploying AI in its products to help people in everyday moments.

"That might look like someone accessing mental health resources on Search, finding a match for a skin condition with Google Lens, getting useful health insights about irregular heart rhythms or powering our most accurate heart rate tracking on Fitbit,” said DeSalvo.

“We have teams moving our research from the bench to the bedside to democratize access to health across some of the world’s most critical diseases by applying AI to breast and colorectal cancer screening and chest X-ray imaging,” he informed.

As we think about how the next wave of AI will change health, it’s critical to keep these three approaches in mind: develop AI responsibly, collaborate with others and remember that AI is just one of many tools to improve health.

“If not developed and deployed responsibly, AI could amplify existing disparities. We are working to ensure that these technologies do not leave anyone behind and that the advancement of AI is harnessed in a bold and responsible way. All while partnering with the health ecosystem and the people it is serving,” said the Google executive.