Some of the most exciting (and scary) aspects of machine learning that you may not know about | MedCity News

Photo: Stephanie Baum

"The decibel of chatter around artificial intelligence is rising to the point where many are inclined to dismiss it as hype. It’s unfair because while certain aspects of the technology are a long way away from becoming mainstream tech, like self-driving cars, it’s a fascinating topic." notes Stephanie Baum, Digital Health Editor for MedCityNews.com.

Photo: Andrzej Wojcicki, Getty Images

After listening to a talk recently by Eric Horvitz, Microsoft Research managing director, I can appreciate that the number of applications being conceived around the technology is only matched by the ethical dilemmas surrounding it. But in both cases, they are much more varied than what typically dominates the conversation about AI.

For fans of the ethical roads less traveled in AI, Horvitz offered a fair few items for his audience to consider at the SXSW conference last week that alternated between hope for the human condition and fear for it. Although I previously highlighted some of the healthcare applications he discussed, there are plenty of issues he raised that one day could be just as relevant to healthcare. I have included a few of them here...

Adversarial machine learning
One fascinating topic addressed in the talk was how machine learning could be used with negative intent —referred to as adversarial machine learning. It involves feeding a computer information that changes how it interprets images, words, and how it processes information. In one study, a computer that was fed images of a stop sign could be retained to interpret those images as a yield sign. That has important implications for self-driving cars and automated tasks in other sectors.

Another facet of adversarial machine learning is the use of information tracking individuals’ Web searches, likes and dislikes shared in social networks and the kinds of content they tend to click on and using that information to manipulate these people. That could cover a wide swathe of misdeeds from manipulation through fake Tweets designed by neural networks in the personality of the account holder to particularly nasty phishing attacks. Horvitz noted that these AI attacks on human minds will be an important issue in our lifetime.

“We’re talking about technologies that will touch us in much more intimate ways because they are the technologies of intellect,” Horvitz said.
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Source: MedCity News