Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• More than 50 orgs from business, academia and government are banding together to advance AI assertively yet responsibly. Calling itself the AI Alliance, the assemblage will unite over shared interests in innovation, safety, diversity, opportunity and “benefits for all.” Co-drivers of the bus are IBM and Meta. Announcement.
   
• In 2024, AI will occupy more territory in the minds of tech leaders than any other technology. IEEE found as much when it consulted 350 CIOs, CTOs, IT directors and similarly titled tech professionals in the U.S., U.K., China, India and Brazil. Extended reality and cloud computing came in second and third, respectively. 5G and quantum computing also registered. Coverage with study link from IEEE Spectrum.
   
• ‘AI let loose by itself is a terrible thing.’ The cautionary nugget is from Christoph Lehmann, MD, director of clinical informatics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He offers the observation in an expansive interview about healthcare AI with D magazine in Dallas. Read the piece.
   
• On the other hand, generative AI is ‘capable of delivering meaningful improvements in healthcare more rapidly than was the case with previous technologies.’ That’s from Robert Wachter, MD, chair of medicine at UC-San Francisco and author of the 2015 bestseller The Digital Doctor. Wachter airs out his optimism in a JAMA opinion piece and an interview with UCSF’s news operation.
   
• Tension is building between Google’s healthcare AI operation and the D.C. denizens trying to monitor smooth operators like, well, like Google’s healthcare AI operation. As Politico reports, lawmakers and regulators are especially challenged by Google leaders and lobbyists who used to be government officials themselves. Story here.
   
• There are more ways than one to educate medical students in AI. One of them is modeled at the University of Texas, which offers a dual-degree program incorporating healthcare AI. Health IT Analytics has the story.
   
• 3Aware of Indianapolis is working with Mayo Clinic Platform to help medical device manufacturers comply with regulatory requirements. Announcement here.
   
• Evidently just for Schlitz and giggles, Reuters asked two generative AI powerhouses for their take on the most important news of 2023. OpenAI’s ChatGPT gave a goofy response that would have been no help at all had its input mattered. Google’s Bard did better but completely missed the Israel-Hamas war. The news service’s global managing editor, Simon Robinson, comments: “But even if AI cannot yet match a journalist, the technology’s emergence in 2023 promised (or threatened, depending on your viewpoint) a profound shift in the way humans operate. … In 2024, expect more progress and more news on regulators scrambling to keep up.”
   
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners: 
   
  • Health Imaging: GE HealthCare debuts AI suite for early breast cancer detection