Industry Watcher’s Digest

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• Platform thinking plus sector-wide collaboration. That’s the one-two punch healthcare needs to solve its most pressing problems—things like “too much disease, increasing demand and uneven quality.” So asserted at least one speaker at PlatforMed 2024, held in Phoenix earlier this month. Unsurprisingly, subject matter experts from Mayo Clinic, home of Mayo Clinic Platform, were on hand in some number. “Platforms represent our greatest opportunity to bring real, lasting and transformative change to our global healthcare system,” Gianrico Farrugia, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, told attendees, according to Mayo’s own coverage. Elsewhere Mayo has defined platform thinking in healthcare as a way to digitally support the “aggregation and harmonization of disparate clinical and non-clinical data” so as to “cure more people, connect people and data to create new knowledge, and transform healthcare by developing new, vetted end-to-end algorithms and other innovative solutions to improve care.” You don’t have to know what’s involved in that challenge to be glad the very capable people at Mayo Clinic Platform are up for it.
   
• A nonprofit policy think tank in D.C. has issued calls for two governing bodies to get more involved with AI. The think tank, the Federation of American Scientists, wants the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to lead an interagency coalition to produce standards that enable third-party research and development on healthcare data. And it wants Congress to authorize the establishment of a NIST Foundation to financially support the agency’s AI mandate. The latter, the scientists’ federation says, would “increase trust in AI technologies and lead to greater uptake of AI across various sectors.” Don’t overlook healthcare among those sectors, FAS.
   
• Consider Mark Cuban an enthusiastic adopter of Gemini for Google Workspace. And not just because that’s what Google wants you to do. In giving the endorsement on a Google blog, Cuban says his Cost Plus Drugs migrated from Microsoft to Google for collaboration and productivity support because “There are two kinds of companies—those that are great at AI and everybody else.” And if Cost Plus Drugs is going to be anything, “great at AI” is it. To be sure, the blog post is promotional. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth a read.
   
• Are Apple and Meta in talks on an AI partnership? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, the prospect has the business press falling all over itself to get a scoop. The Wall Street Journal: “Exclusive: Apple, Meta have discussed an AI partnership.” Bloomberg: “Apple spurned idea of iPhone AI partnership with Meta months ago.” Reuters: “Apple, Meta not in talks for AI partnership.” Try to keep up.
   
• To predict the earnings potential of any given AI company, look at the innovation quotient of its key people. The U.K. research firm Zeki does something very close to that. Its latest analysis assesses the 10-year talent levels of AI-savvy engineers, scientists and researchers at more than 40,000 companies across 94 countries. Zeki is primarily interested in investment angles, separating likely money makers from probable also-rans. The new report zeroes in on four strongly positioned AI startups in healthcare—Caspar AI, Clear Guide Medical, ThinkSono and Aural Analytics. It’s downloadable here in exchange for contact info.
   
• Teachers like AI for lightening their workloads and, in the process, leaving more time to tutor struggling students. Participants in a pilot program in Indiana said as much when surveyed. Most also said the technology had a positive influence on student learning. But students beware: Teachers are no easier to fool with technology than they were when cheating tactics ranged from low-tech (answers inked onto palms and forearms) to no-tech (furtively glancing at a smart kid’s paper). In one Hoosier State school system, first-time offenders using generative AI to complete an assignment could lose credit for the assignment and have their parents notified. Do it again and you could be kicked out of the class and slapped with an F. Still, an educator tells a local news outlet, “We cannot block generative AI or other AI tools from students.” Along with the temptations, the teacher points out, the technology can bring “many potentials and benefits.”
   
• When ChatGPT-4o went up against Claude 3.5 Sonnet, a clear winner emerged. Tom’s Guide officiated the duel. Who won between OpenAI’s best-trained chatbot and its strapping challenger from Anthropic? Take a guess, then get the play-by-play along with the final results.
   
• GenAI can do a lot of things, but it sure can’t spin comedy gold. Some funny-boned researchers recently found this out the painful way when they put large language models on the spot, improv-like. Evidently the punch lines generated more groans than giggles, as MIT Technology Review recounts. Sample prompt: “Write a joke about pickpocketing.” Response: “I decided to switch careers and become a pickpocket after watching a magic show. Little did I know, the only thing disappearing would be my reputation!”
   
• Recent research roundup:
   
  • Case Western Reserve: Researchers awarded $2.78M federal grant to improve rectal cancer treatment with artificial intelligence
     
  • Michigan State University: Transforming drug discovery with AI
     
  • Nanyang Technological University: Gastroenterologists generally trust AI tools, study finds
     
  • Trinity College Dublin: Scientists devise algorithm to engineer improved enzymes
     
• Funding news of note:
   
  • Prior authorization platform Humata Health closes $25M investment
     
• From AIin.Healthcare’s news partners:
   
  • Cardiovascular Business: AI-powered platform for arrhythmia detection gains FDA approval
     
  • Health Imaging: Supplemental AI education during residency linked to key benefits
     
  • Health Exec: Medical staff must have a say in what AI is adopted for patient care, says AMA