Implantable AI System May Detect and Treat Illnesses
Artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change medicine and healthcare: Diagnostic patient data, e.g. from ECG, EEG or X-ray images, can be analyzed with the help of machine learning, so that diseases can be detected at a very early stage based on subtle changes.
However, implanting AI within the human body is still a major technical challenge.
TU Dresden scientists at the Chair of Optoelectronics have now succeeded for the first time in developing a bio-compatible implantable AI platform that classifies in real time healthy and pathological patterns in biological signals such as heartbeats.
It detects pathological changes even without medical supervision.
The research results have now been published in the journal Science Advances.
In this work, the research team led by Prof. Karl Leo, Dr. Hans Kleemann and Matteo Cucchi demonstrates an approach for real-time classification of healthy and diseased bio-signals based on a biocompatible AI chip (pictured above).
They used polymer-based fiber networks that structurally resemble the human brain and enable the neuromorphic AI principle of reservoir computing. The random arrangement of polymer fibers forms a so-called “recurrent network,” which allows it to process data, analogous to the human brain.
The nonlinearity of these networks enables to amplify even the smallest signal changes, which – in the case of the heartbeat, for example – are often difficult for doctors to evaluate.
However, the nonlinear transformation using the polymer network makes this possible without any problems.
In trials, the AI was able to differentiate between healthy heartbeats from three common arrhythmias with an 88 percent accuracy rate.
In the process, the polymer network consumed less energy than a pacemaker.
The potential applications for implantable AI systems are manifold: For example, they could be used to monitor cardiac arrhythmias or complications after surgery and report them to both doctors and patients via smartphone, allowing for swift medical assistance.
“The vision of combining modern electronics with biology has come a long way in recent years with the development of so-called organic mixed conductors,” explains Matteo Cucchi, PhD student and first author of the paper. “So far, however, successes have been limited to simple electronic components such as individual synapses or sensors. Solving complex tasks has not been possible so far. In our research, we have now taken a crucial step toward realizing this vision. By harnessing the power of neuromorphic computing, such as reservoir computing used here, we have succeeded in not only solving complex classification tasks in real time but we will also potentially be able to do this within the human body. This approach will make it possible to develop further intelligent systems in the future that can help save human lives.”
Reference:
“Reservoir computing with biocompatible organic electrochemical networks for brain-inspired biosignal classification” by Matteo Cucchi, Christopher Gruener, Lautaro Petrauskas, Peter Steiner, Hsin Tseng, Axel Fischer, Bogdan Penkovsky, Christian Matthus, Peter Birkholz, Hans Kleemann and Karl Leo, 18 August 2021, Science Advances.
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Header image: TU Dresden
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Howdy
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Does everything have to be AI? Since being able to answer people’s questions is seen as being intelligent, then my old calculator Is AI.
Machine learning? Have you ever watched a “maze mouse” find the exit of a maze on It’s own? Cool, and great to watch, but you think that makes the device intelligent? No. The “mouse” follows instructions. The program Is written to adapt based on result. Distance traveled etc. If no permanent storage is included to remember the course, power off means the device has to learn again.
The programmers themselves are the intelligent ones, not the electronics.
If you never saw one before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IngelKjmecg
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val
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Implantable AI System May Detect and Treat Illnesses …. and then again, it May not. Without a conscious mind and intuition based on living experience … AI is a losers game. Limited and tech for lazy people.
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slandermen
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It could also be a wonderful way to massively increase supposed diagnosed diseases, thanks to associated AI bias.
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itsme
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AI used to target the disease it creates…. amazing
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slandermen
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Hey, good point. It’s obviously toxic, invasive and damaging.
Kinda like how PET scans cause cancer.
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