Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Alarm bells over generative AI are ‘deafening.’ And the people making the most noise are the very developers who designed ChatGPT and its large-language rivals. “We must take those warnings seriously.” The word picture and quote are from Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations. On Monday Guterres pledged to form a high-level UN advisory board to work against any risks AI might pose to human rights, the rule of law and the common good. This followed a day after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak volunteered his country to become the “geographical home of global AI safety regulation.”
   
• Physicians are using large language AI to improve communications with patients. Whether using the tools as an especially handy thesaurus or as a deft translator of medicalese to lay language, some are finding worthwhile assistance in finding words to “break bad news and express concerns about a patient’s suffering.” Covering the development June 12, New York Times science & medicine reporter Gina Kolata points out that empathy can prove elusive even with the assistance of AI. Read the article.
   
• Epistemic AI (Boston) has introduced a generative AI product aimed at biomedical researchers. Called EpistemicGPT, the large-language platform taps the company’s knowledge base, 6 billion nodes deep, to supply domain-specific biomedical evidence while boxing out “the concern of unreliable or fabricated information often found with ChatGPT.”
   
• Deep learning can assess surgical skills and screen for surgeons who need more training. A model showed its ability for doing both at a study conducted in Japan and published in JAMA Surgery.
   
• An influential investor has named a healthcare AI startup among four ‘disruptive innovators’ to watch. Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of Ark Invest, likes Teladoc Health. She’s signaled her great expectations for the telemedicine provider by taking ownership of more than $300 million worth of its stock.
   
• Waystar (Louisville) has announced upgrades across its cloud platform for handling healthcare payments. The company says the enhancements unify payments on the single platform while adding new capabilities in automation and analytics.
   
• Large-language models are astute predictors of next words but awful dispensers of actionable advice. Still, they’re “transforming the way AI assists in decision-making because they are changing the way humans provide judgment.” Three AI experts piece out the puzzle in Harvard Business Review.
   
• Laudio (Boston) has raised $13 million in series B funds. The company plans to refine its software geared to increase productivity in clinical service lines, saying its AI can reduce healthcare worker turnover by 25% in 12 months. Announcement here.
   
• The FDA has cleared software for patient monitoring and disease management from Huma Therapeutics (London). The green light allows the company’s platform to host AI algorithms that support screening, diagnosis, dosing recommendations, clinical decision making and prognostication for multiple medical conditions. Announcement.
   
• Chinese tech outfits trying to catch ChatGPT still have a ways to go. So suggests a recent round of head-to-head tests pitting the category leader against rivals in the increasingly crowded large-language space. ChatGPT beat two competitors made in China—Baidu’s Ernie Bot and Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen. Silicon UK has the details.