Google Is Absorbing DeepMind's Health Care Unit To Create An 'AI Assistant For Nurses and Doctors'

Google has announced that it's absorbing DeepMind Health, a part of its London-based AI lab DeepMind. "In a blog post, DeepMind's founders said it was a 'major milestone' for the company that would help turn its Streams app -- which it developed to help the UK's National Health Service (NHS) -- into 'an AI-powered assistant for nurses and doctors' that combines 'the best algorithms with intuitive design,'" reports The Verge. "Currently, the Streams app is being piloted in the UK as a way to help health care practitioners manage patients." From the report: DeepMind says its Streams team will remain in London and that it's committed to carrying out ongoing work with the NHS. These include a number of ambitious research projects, such as using AI to spot eye disease in routine scans. The news is potentially controversial given the upset in the UK caused by one of DeepMind's early deals with the NHS. The country's data watchdogs ruled in 2017 that a partnership DeepMind struck with the NHS was illegal, as individuals hadn't been properly informed about how their medical data would be used.

Another consistent worry for privacy advocates in the UK has been the prospect of Google getting its hands on this sort of information. It's not clear what the absorption of the Streams team into Google means in that context, but we've reached out to DeepMind for clarification. According to a report from CNBC, the independent review board DeepMind set up to oversee its health work will likely be shut down as a result of the move. More broadly speaking, the news clearly signals Google's ambitions in health care and its desire to get the most of its acquisition of the London AI lab. There have reportedly been long-standing tensions between DeepMind and Google, with the latter wanting to commercialize the former's work. Compared to Google, DeepMind has positioned itself as a cerebral home for long-sighted research, attracting some of the world's best AI talent in the process.

So what do you think?

[93 Escort Wagon]

In three or four years are we going to see an announcement that all the “Alphabet” companies are being brought under the Google umbrella, and going forward Alphabet will be known as Google?

Re:

[rtb61]

I think we are going to see a class action law suit for invasion of privacy and the legal requirement to keep medical records private. Those perverted freak cunts at Google wanting to invade you privacy, during the fucking diagnosis. Oh your name is not on the record but the IP address of the device as, as is you fucking location in the fucking doctors office.

Shit governments doing nothing about Alphabets mass sick invasions of privacy going unquestioned because they are selling the data to government to c

Re:

[Spamalope]

As a condition of care you sign a form authorizing sharing of data with 'certain partners' to facilitate care, or you get no treatment. See? It's voluntary now. If you're in the UK or Canada, then it's single payer and the state decided for you. We know you have a herniated disk in your back, so pick up that can - hahahahah!

Here in the US, workers comp is similar. You have no choice, and they sell your data for a nickle. Now I'm getting calls 5-10 times a week from medical device scammers who have been s

Re:

[KingMotley]

Unless your significant other is a doctor, your fucking location shouldn't be in the doctors office.

Re:

[phantomfive]

I don't get the logic that says, 'building a robot that folds clothes is hard. Why don't we build one that helps doctors because that's easier??"

Re:

[religionofpeas]

I don't know folding clothes is necessarily harder, but it is much more expensive, simply because of all the extra mechanical parts. And the work output of a clothes folding machine is much less valuable than the output of an expert system that looks at medical scans.

What's expensive and what isn't.

[XXongo]

Designing a robot to fold clothes isn't impossible, but nobody would pay $200,000 for a robot that folds clothes to replace a worker making $7.25 an hour.

Hospitals would easily pay $200,000 for a robot that does some of the work of a $1,000,000/year physician, if it allows that doctor to see 10% more patients

Re:

[mikael]

There is the Da Vinci robotic surgery system:
https://www.davincisurgery.com... [davincisurgery.com]

That's almost getting close to the Waldos by the story "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Building a clothes folding robot requires identification of the object to be folded, it's orientation, identification of any existing creases (office suit trousers), identification of wrinkles that have to be removed, reorientation to remove wrinkles, then the correct way of folding for every type of clothing (trous

Re:

[Applehu Akbar]

Because any field where a large part of the training is rote memorization is ripe for AI assistants which can thrash through vast amounts of sensor and scan data to support human professionals in making inferences.

OK Google ...

[cascadingstylesheet]

... tell me where in this brain to cut next.

That makes warm and fuzzy

[OneHundredAndTen]

If this assistant is anything like the Google Assistant, expect frustration and cockups galore.