If you ask the world’s best ophthalmologist to predict your sex by examining your retina, her odds of getting it right are no better than a coin toss – 50/50. Give that same task to an AI and it will almost certainly nail it every time, with a 0.99 AUROC score. No human doctor, scientist or researcher has figured out how to distinguish between a male or female retina. The subtle differences appear indistinguishable to the human eye. But multiple studies show that it is glaringly obvious to an AI.
Sure, determining someone’s sex by looking at their retina has zero clinical significance today. This is an example of how AI will unlock important discoveries otherwise unknowable to humans. Others have already used machine learning models to predict autism spectrum disorder and cardiovascular risk factors. Just by looking at the retina. What will our ever powerful AIs discover with data on chronic disease or cancerous cells?
AI sees what we cannot. It will answer questions we don’t know to ask. That is game changing.
Whenever I hear AI doomers, I think of this and the countless examples like it.
Talia Goldberg 