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Google bets on AI to solve healthcare, agri challenges

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Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/business/07/10/20190710-google-ai-1.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Google AI head Jeff Dean speaks during Google Asia-Pacific’s Solve with AI event in Tokyo, Japan. July 10, 2019. Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>TOKYO - Artificial intelligence can help solve social challenges in healthcare, agriculture and environmental protection, among others, Google&#x27;s AI head said Wednesday.Artificial intelligence can do &quot;transformative&quot; things in these areas, Google AI head Jeff Dean said in Solve with AI event here. “AI can be used as a tool to help solve a problem in society. We believe that AI can help tackle the most difficult social and environmental challenges of our time,” Dean said. An AI algorithm could fill the gap in areas where doctors are limited, Google Health product manager Lily Peng said. Some 415 million people with diabetes worldwide are at risk from diabetic retinopathy or blindness. But it can be prevented through early detection, she said. In India, where there is a shortage of 127,000 eye doctors, Peng said nearly half of the diabetic patients succumb to diabetic-related blindness. Google is developing a technology that could help doctors interpret data faster, she said. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/business/07/10/20190710-google-ai-2.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Google is helping develop a technology that can help doctors prevent diabetic retinopathy through early detection and faster data interpretation. Handout</figcaption></figure></div> “Machine learning is really great for use cases, a lot of data and when expertise is limited, “Peng said. “Doctors plus algorithm perform better…we think this is a promising way of leveraging this principle,” she said. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/business/07/10/20190710-google-ai-3.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Google Health product manager Lily Peng during her keynote speech at Solve with AI event here in Tokyo, Japan. July 10, 2019. Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>AI detection also applies in other diseases such as lung cancer, Peng said. “When cases are diagnosed early, the chances of survival are much higher… The potential in health care is huge that’s why it&#x27;s important to make it available,” Peng said. <div>AI in agriculture</div>Artificial intelligence can also help farmers prevent crop loss due to pest infestation, said Raghu Dharmaraju, Wadhawani Institute for Artificial Intelligence vice president for product and program. Dharmaraju is helping develop a technology to improve pest detection. With this technology, farmers just need to use their smartphones to take photos of organisms caught on traps and send the data to identify possible pests, he said.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/business/07/10/20190710-google-ai-4.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>A worker takes a photograph of organisms caught in traps to detect the presence of pests. Handout. </figcaption></figure></div>The technology is being tested on cotton crops in Southern India and can be developed for other crops as well, Dharmaraju said. He said this technology was unlikely to displace farmworkers.“We are helping them do their jobs better because the amount it takes to take photos from trap to trap, it&#x27;s just not possible to do that’s why there’s huge crop loss and it affects their income more,&quot; he said.With the technology, farmers can “focus on stuff that humans do well.”“We are not only doing something that is socially relevant but we’re also pushing boundaries of science,” he said.Artificial intelligence can also help make a difference in flood forecasting, environmental conservation, and culture preservation, Dean said. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/07/10/19/google-ai-makes-disaster-alerts-more-precise-targeted">Google AI makes disaster alerts more precise, targeted</a></li></ul>Google has made its tools, training and resources publicly available to help people solve problems, Dean said.

Artificial intelligence can help solve social challenges in healthcare, agriculture and environmental protection, among others, Google's AI head said Wednesday.

Artificial intelligence can help solve social challenges in healthcare, agriculture and environmental protection, among others, Google's AI head said Wednesday.

Google bets on AI to solve healthcare, agri challenges

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Google bets on AI to solve healthcare, agri challenges

Jessica Fenol,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 10, 2019 02:28 PM PHT

Read More:

AI

artificial intelligence

Google

Jeff Dean

big data

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