Tech behemoth Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)(NASDAQ:GOOG) is harnessing the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as part of its strategic push into the healthcare sector. Alphabet’s cloud unit, Google, is pacing ahead with its medical technology chatbot, Med-PaLM 2, to generate responses to medical queries. Google believes its developmental medical chatbot will be better than its peers as it is feeding Med-PaLM 2 with questions and answers from medical licensing exams, a Wall Street Journal report stated.
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Tech companies view the healthcare sector as one of the most lucrative industries, as it can tap into a wider global consumer base. The Med-PaLM 2 is capable of generating responses to medical queries as well as summarizing medical documents and organizing heaps of healthcare data. With the help of this chatbot, Google hopes to reach those parts of the world that are deprived of sound and quality medical assistance. As per research from Statista, the global healthcare AI market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37% and is poised to reach $188 billion by 2030.
Challenges of AI in Healthcare
AI chatbots are developed based on Large Language Models (LLMs) that feed on the vast amounts of information available on the internet. In the case of the medical industry, tech companies have to be accurate about the data that is fed into the models, as these relate to diseases and human life. In April this year, Google began testing its Med-PaLM 2 with real customers, including the Mayo Clinic, a research hospital in the U.S. The Mayo Clinic is on track to start using one of Google’s AI models to build a search tool related to patients’ historical records.
While AI can be beneficial to a great extent, its use in the healthcare world also has its own set of challenges. Experts caution against the use of sensitive patient data and the accuracy of medical responses from chatbots, as these could be life-threatening. Some even revolt against the use of AI in the industry, as they believe a one-to-one understanding of the patient’s needs and customized solutions for patients are of utmost importance.
Importantly, Google has said that patients who are testing the Med-PaLM 2 app will have control of their own data in encrypted settings, which will not be used by Google or fed into the chatbot. Even so, Med-PaLM 2 has a long way to go before it can be launched openly for the general public. Google’s tech needs to undergo more testing and development to maintain the accuracy and relevancy of its answers. Google faces stiff competition in the space from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which is developing its med chatbot rapidly with the help of its OpenAI partnership.
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