B2 – Upper Intermediate
Another way experts is developing on how to utilize artificial intelligence is for it to be able to predict possible health issues years ahead of time.
Delphi-2M has been learning to spot patterns using anonymous medical records so it can foretell what comes next and when.
However, it won’t be able to say exactly when the date will be of a medical event like a heart attack or stroke. It estimates the probability of 1,231 diseases though.
Read the article about artificial intelligence’s ability to forecast people’s health issues.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2pj502ev6o
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “stack up” mean here, “The model was then tested to see if its predictions stacked up using data from other Biobank participants, and then with 1.9 million people’s medical records in Denmark.” Use the phrase in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.
- What does “cut back” mean? “This could include medicines or specific lifestyle advice – such as people likely to develop some liver disorders benefitting from cutting back their alcohol intake more than the general population.” Use the phrase in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.
- What does “scalable” mean? “This research looks to be a significant step towards scalable, interpretable, and – most importantly – ethically responsible form of predictive modelling in medicine.” Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym or similar expression.
Discussion Questions:
- Share your thoughts on this technology. What do you think are its promises and pitfalls?
- Do you see this technology “following a similar path to the use of genomics in healthcare where it took a decade to go from scientists being confident in the technology to healthcare being able to use it routinely“? Why or why not?
- What can you say about this, “The technology has learned to spot patterns in people’s medical records to calculate their risk of more than 1,000 diseases.”
- “The researchers say it is like a weather forecast that anticipates a 70% chance of rain – but for human health.” Is this reliable enough? Share your opinion.
- Do you think this technology can be considered an “ethically responsible form of predictive modelling in medicine“? Share your insights.