Intelligence

  • New diagnostic tools leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence. Too Much Data to Process By 2030 all Baby Boomers will be over 65, which means that health-related issues become more and more top-of-mind for this aging population. Regular cancer screenings are one of these concerns. The sheer volume of such screenings already taxes existing healthcare systems. However, laboratories, diagnostic technicians, and healthcare providers are using powerful new technological tools to aid them in the work of helping patients live happier & healthier lives. One such tool is Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to as AI. Unlike its counterparts depicted in the movies as sentient neural networks whose sole purpose is to destroy humanity, real AI has been a computing and data processing resource staple for decades. AI is as quotidian as the electric power grid and supermarkets. Everything from predictive weather modeling to aid meteorologists to CAD-based generative design for engineers, AI has proven to be a powerful tool for many industries in an everyday capacity. In the case of healthcare, data modeling and data processing have become synonymous with AI-driven environments capable of handling such massive volumes. Take for example liquid biopsies to better predict infant cancers. The data associated with these tests are referred to as high-throughput data. Making connections is essential between high-throughput data on orders of magnitude within a smaller outcome sample space of patient responses. The results of these AI-driven computations expedite determinations on whether or not they have cancer. Statistical models are useful for summarizing and describing variations to predictive models, and machine learning AI leverages these summaries that can make for more useful predictions, as seen above. Imaging for Data Collection and AI Processing From X-Rays, to CT (CAT) Scans, to MRIs, in vivo imaging technology has been one of the most powerful medical...
  • In the battle of the Virtual Assistants (VA), it seems like everything else, there are too many choices. Alexa, SIRI, Google Assistant, and Cortana are practically household names at this point. While each has their particular set of benefits, no one AI (i.e. Artificial Intelligence, because that’s what we’re really talking about here) can fulfill every request made of it. With next year’s pending launch of my company’s (PTC) flagship PLM platform, Windchill (integrated with Microsoft Azure’s cloud solution)—facilitating manufacturers’ efforts to rollout NPIs (i.e. new product introductions)—I thought it would be interesting to explore some aspects of where VAs/AIs are these days in a practical sense from home to business. I’d venture to guess that most homes feature more than one VA. The Digtal Batman household runs both SIRI on our iPhones/iPod and AppleTV 4K, and we run an Echo Dot featuring Alexa. It’s interesting to note the significant differences for our needs. For example: Alexa comes in handy when playing music from Amazon Music Unlimited and radio broadcasts over IHeartRadio. Whereas, SIRI dials our phone numbers, reads our texts, provides us with navigation, and helps us search/navigate our Apple TV 4K streaming device. Conversely, like most PTC employees running Windows 10 on their laptops, Cortana can easily be enabled. But I think it would be a little weird if everyone in the open seating at Seaport HQ started talking into their computers all at once! Though I haven’t used “Okay Google” in a while, it does come in handy for general searches and navigating the plethora of online/cloud‐based productivity, calendar, and meeting tools available—especially if you’re using Google Chrome. And what’s really interesting is now each of these separate VA platforms are starting to work together: organizing calendars across different devices (like cell phones), providing email from multiple...