Inspired AI Summit 2020 Top Takeaways: Episode 7

AI Summit 2020 Nov 13, 2020

Brainpool is back with another ‘Top Takeaways’ post from Inspired Minds’ AI Summit 2020! Episode 7 was split into two parts - Part 1 focused on The Future of Health whilst Part 2 explored The Future of Finance. As such, our post this week shines a light on a session from each focus area. We’ve highlighted sessions by Loes Van Egmond (Business Development Director, Skin Vision) about ‘AI in Skin Cancer’ and a session by Manuela M. Velosis (Head, JPMorgan Chase AI Research) about ‘AI Technology for Finances’.

AI in Skin Cancer:

Loes Van Egmond’s session highlighted how AI may influence the future of healthcare. She explained how skin cancer has become an epidemic in recent times and how the use of AI may be crucial in the fight against it.

Van Egmond opened by highlighting the wide-spread occurrence of skin cancer in recent times, with 1 in 5 developing it throughout their lifetime and 150,000 new cases being discovered every year. She then explained the importance of early diagnosis in the treatment of skin cancers given the 95% survival rate associated with early detection, compared to the 41% increase in risk of death when detection doesn’t occur within 4 months. Despite the critical implications of these statistics, she highlighted the current shortage of dermatologists able to diagnose skin cancers.

Van Egmond then outlined how Covid-19 has led to a reduction in skin cancer diagnosis, caused by strains on healthcare systems. As such, effective self-diagnosis tools are required - these tools would allow one to check marks on their skin and report to a specialist if they are flagged as being of high risk.

AI computer vision technologies may be the solution to this issue. Van Egmond’s company, Skin Vision, has developed an app that leverages machine learning (ML) in order to identify skin cancers. By using the camera on one’s smartphone, marks on skin can be detected and, within 30 seconds, the app will generate a percentage risk. Remarkably, this app has been found to have the same levels of accuracy as dermatologists in detecting skin cancers. Since launch, it has checked over 200,000 skin spots and identified over 600 skin cancer cases.

Ultimately, this session highlighted the potential for AI within healthcare and drew attention to how it may reduce future strains that are placed on healthcare systems.

AI Technology for Finances:

With a background in the construction of autonomous robots, Manuela Veloso is now bringing her expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the finance world. As such, she delivered an incredibly forward-thinking session on the goals that her AI Research group at JPMorgan Chase aim to achieve in the coming years.

Firstly, she highlighted the fact that the world of finance is primarily about economics. As such, an understanding of economic systems and the markets is crucial. This understanding will therefore aid our ability to address question one: how do we use AI to predict and affect economic systems? Her team is attempting to answer this question through an exploration of multi-agent games. These games, like our economic systems, involve interactions between agents - understanding the forces that move these interactions will therefore clarify how AI can predict the movements themselves.

Additionally, Veloso drew attention to the vast amount of data that financial institutions must handle. As such, another question her team is addressing surrounds AI’s ability to leverage this data safely. In answering, they are using cryptography techniques as well as creating synthetic data in order to improve existing methods in an experimental way. Further, Veloso spoke of the finance industry’s need to address issues related to financial crime. The relevant question, therefore, asks how AI can be used to detect attempts at criminal activity.

Additionally, the stakeholders involved in the finance realm must be borne in mind given AI’s affect on each of them. For clients, AI can improve the customer experience and provide seamless interaction with firm’s across multiple touchpoints. For employees, AI can alleviate workloads through the handling of administrative tasks and alike. Regulators, on the other hand, play a role in ensuring AI systems themselves are transparent and produce fair, unbiased results. In a similar vein, the AI Research group’s final goal is to ensure the ethical deployment of AI. Ultimately, Veloso’s team seeks to bring together the technology industry, the finance realm and relevant academics to ensure the effective, efficient and safe use of AI in finance.

Brainpool Thoughts:

COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transformation journeys of many industries. As such, it’s crucial that companies capture the potential held by AI and realise its benefits in solving pressing challenges - be it in healthcare or finance. Emerging technology not only improves the efficiency and effectiveness of current ways of working, but re-invents the customer experience too. At Brainpool AI, we help businesses achieve these benefits by assisting them in their AI adoption journey. Do you want to capture the opportunities presented by AI? Get in touch today.

Next Time:

The next episode is all about Star-ups, Scale Ups & Unicorns and we’re particularly looking forward to ‘How to take your start-up to the next stage: What are investors looking for?’ as well as the ‘Cybershark Pitch’ where startups pitch business ideas to investors!

Written by Anjali Kapila & Joe Duszynski Lewis

Brainpool AI

Brainpool is an artificial intelligence consultancy specialising in developing bespoke AI solutions for business.