Artificial Intelligence has proved to be better at spotting prostate cancer than hospital doctors.
A groundbreaking study tested the technology on more than 10,000 prostate MRI examinations. Using AI saw half the number of so-called “false positives” – where patients are wrongly diagnosed – compared with radiologists.
A fifth fewer clinically insignificant cases were picked up, according to the paper published in The Lancet Oncology.
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An international team from the Netherlands developed the AI using 10,207 MRI scans from 9,129 patients and pitted it against 62 radiologists from 20 countries.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
They reckon AI could help reduce overdiagnosis and prevent unnecessary surgery in the most common cancer among men.
The researchers said AI “could potentially support the diagnostic pathway of prostate cancer management”.
AI was also found to be just as effective as radiologists at picking up severe cancers, based on checks to see how patients fared six years later.
The news comes after it emerged that a chatbot could become the country’s first AI MP.
Businessman Steve Endacott’s firm Neural Voice has created the avatar which listens to voters online without his involvement. He lives in Rochdale – 300 miles away from Brighton where his alter ego “AI Steve” would be the representative if it wins on July 4.
Mr Endacott said: “I will do the physical voting but I will be directed entirely by my constituents via AI Steve. That is the whole idea of democracy.
“You have to put away your own personal politics, your own ego and actually do what your constituents want, which is quite radical in politics.”
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