US Presidents are known to dream big. It was John F. Kennedy who set America on a course to reach the moon. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan was laughed at when he first mentioned a Strategic Defense Initiative. The American press dubbed it “Star Wars” and mocked the idea. One day after his inauguration, President Donald Trump set the nation on a new project named Stargate – an artificial intelligence infrastructure that will “create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” according to OpenAI.com. But best of all, one of the principals in the project, the founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, claims the new technology will be able to create a vaccine for cancer. Is there any merit to such a brazen prediction, or is it merely pie in the sky?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is beyond the dream stage and has been invading nearly every aspect of American life. So, how would AI affect the ongoing battle against such a pervasive disease? In the January issue of the Digital Journal, entrepreneur and former pharmacist Max Votek predicted, “With AI’s help, it’s now possible to predict cancer development up to five years in advance.” He went on to claim:
“With AI providing assistance, we’re likely to cure certain types of cancer within the next ten years. In fact, we already have the ability to treat some cancers with medication that blocks their access to essential chemicals they need to grow. While it may take time to eradicate cancer, I do believe we will make significant progress towards that goal, cutting time to diagnosis, reducing the effects through better treatments, and completely eliminating entire subsets.”
However, before we get ahead of ourselves, we might want to take a look at where and how the Stargate initiative and AI could be helpful in the fight against cancer. The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) argues that AI has already made “massive waves across many sectors,” which means it can:
Process irrationally large amounts of data
Identify patterns
Make predictions
Perform analyses
This type of information assists in the prevention and early detection of cancer cells, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
Stargate: Too Big to Rig
Over 600 thousand people living in the US died from one form of cancer or another last year, according to Popular Science magazine. They tell us that “AI is being used in every stage of cancer research,” including “prediction, detection, drug discovery, treatment and implementation.”
But this innovative technology is not without pitfalls.
Research powered by AI and published in JAMA Pediatrics in 2024 showed that ChatGPT incorrectly diagnosed 80% – or 8 in 10 – pediatric cases. The bottom line in the study was that “To improve the generative AI chatbot’s diagnostic accuracy, more selective training is likely required,” according to The Hill. However, other research, using a different methodology nicknamed MUSK (no relation to Elon), was able to accurately predict “the disease-specific survival of a patient 75% of the time. In contrast, standard predictions based on a person’s cancer stage and other clinical risk factors were correct 64% of the time,” according to SciTechDaily. It was also able to predict melanoma 83% of the time.
Cancer Drugs & Vaccines
“The hope,” according to Popular Science, “is that advances in AI can fast-track the time it takes to find new drugs, hopefully in time for patients who may need them in the near future.” Thus, new pharmaceuticals and vaccines could be the most promising element in the fight against this dreaded disease. Prediction and diagnosis can only take one so far – what’s needed are available treatments and cures, but those working in the AI medical field appear optimistic. Dr. Caroline Chung of the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas intoned, “As a leader in cancer care and research, we have the responsibility to harness AI’s potential to make an impact on quality of care, patient safety, research and streamlined operational processes." She then exclaimed, “This is an exciting time and it’s only the beginning.”
In a July 2023 press conference, then-President Joe Biden declared that his administration had “ended cancer as we know it,” according to The Daily Signal. The article went on to make the salient point that such a claim was both “preposterous and disrespectful” to the millions of Americans who “deal with the crushing realities of cancer.” However, there does appear to be some evidence now that AI might deliver on the high expectations attributed to it. But there’s no time to lose as thousands of Americans and millions more worldwide continue to be diagnosed with some form of cancer.
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