AI Will Transform Medicine. There's Just One Catch

Cerebrospinal fluid leaks, caused by tears or holes in the spinal cord, are rare and difficult to identify. Because the symptoms aren’t uncommon — including nausea, neck pain, ringing in the ears and debilitating positional headaches — patients can spend years without a proper diagnosis. Some have been told they have allergies.

As in a growing number of medical fields, artificial intelligence may upend the way such maladies are detected and treated — boosting accuracy, saving money and in many cases drastically improving lives. While most AI-enabled devices approved by US regulators today are diagnostic, the potential uses of the technology in health care are vast, from automating tedious administrative tasks to accelerating drug discovery. By some estimates, broad adoption of AI could save up to $360 billion in annual health spending.