SINCE GOOGLE’S LAUNCH of AI Overview in Canada about a year ago, like many others, I have come to rely on those initial bursts of information at the top of the search page with links to further details.
Even when I try to resist reading the summaries, I find myself drawn to the quick and easy format that appears to give me answers to my questions. I have, however, caught AI lying several times, making up gobbledygook, gibberish, that sounds like the truth, but is far from it. Funny enough, when I typed in “What is gobbledygook?” AI Overview had nothing to say.
One of the professors in this issue will tell you AI does indeed lie, like an unreliable friend, but not only that, it hallucinates. She is working to prevent that in agentic AI models designed to improve aspects of health and patient care.
Most do not realize how intricately woven into their lives AI already is; how it is on the verge of revolutionizing areas such as health care, robotics, emergency and disaster management, transportation and consumer buying habits. While the researchers we spoke to for this magazine emphasize the need for ethical, unbiased and equitable AI with proper governance frameworks and regulations, they also excitedly explained its amazing potential for transformational good.
They are busy developing AI tools to improve care for brain, ovarian and breast cancer patients, creating an ethical, data-driven AI model framework to improve equal access to donor organs and developing ways to predict liver transplant complications early. Work is also being done on the development of a doctor’s assistant to help alleviate health-care pressures and shortages in rural and northern areas. Inroads into personalized medicine through genome sequencing are ramping up, while non-invasive, wearable devices to analyze sweat for early disease detection are around the corner.
Additionally, AI is being leveraged to relieve traffic congestion, while better mobility solutions for seniors and wheelchair users are on the horizon. Sharing pedestrian spaces with robots is already a reality in some places. Next stop? Robotics powering space travel. These are a few of the inspiring stories you will read within these covers, featuring researchers striving to make people’s lives better, whether on the roads, in a hospital bed, buying something online or searching the cosmos.
Sandra McLean
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