Artificial intelligence saved lives by diagnosing a rare disease.

The artificial intelligence system named Watson, developed and produced by IBM, has accomplished many remarkable achievements to date. After winning the game show Jeopardy and even creating exotic recipes, the AI has now added another milestone to its record by diagnosing a disease that doctors had overlooked.

Watson determined that a woman examined by physicians at the University of Tokyo was in fact suffering from a rare form of blood cancer. Achieving what the doctors could not, the artificial intelligence compared the 60-year-old patient’s blood test results with data from 20 million cancer cases stored in its database and reached this conclusion. By delivering the correct diagnosis in just 10 minutes, Watson helped identify the woman’s illness and enabled her to receive appropriate treatment and recover. This development already demonstrates the significant potential of artificial intelligence systems for the future.