Researchers have created an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that can detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease up to ten years before symptoms appear.
The AI was fed 38 MRI scans from Alzheimer’s patients, and 29 from healthy patients, the website says, to help it learn common patterns in neurological activity and the symptoms of the disease.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Researchers then used the programme to “process brain scans from 148 subjects”. The AI was able to correctly detect Alzheimer’s, with a success rate of 86% - and it could also identify “mild cognitive impairment” 84% of the time.
That suggests the programme could be used to find the disease “almost a decade before the appearance of clinical symptoms”, says International Business Times.
Although there is not yet a cure for Alzheimer’s, early diagnosis and treatment can slow down the progression of the disease.
This isn’t the first study that involves using “cutting-edge technology to help diagnose Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases”, reports Digital Trends.
Scientists at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam have also been using MRI brain scans to try to achieve earlier Alzheimer’s diagnoses, the website says, while an AI programme being developed by researchers from several universities in California may soon be able to detect the disease through an eye test.
Sign up for The WeekDay email, your twice-daily digest of news and comment
-
October 4 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include the Einstein files, defunding the police, and an odd tribute to Jane Goodall
-
Mustardy beans and hazelnuts recipeThe Week Recommends Nod to French classic offers zingy, fresh taste
-
Under siege: Argentina’s president drops his chainsawTalking Point The self-proclaimed ‘first anarcho-capitalist president in world history’ faces mounting troubles
-
Prayer apps: is AI playing God?Under The Radar New chatbots are aimed at creating a new generation of believers
-
Is the UK government getting too close to Big Tech?Today’s Big Question US-UK tech pact, supported by Nvidia and OpenAI, is part of Silicon Valley drive to ‘lock in’ American AI with US allies
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Albania’s AI government minister: a portent of things to come?In The Spotlight A bot called Diella has been tasked with tackling the country's notorious corruption problem
-
The tiny Caribbean island sitting on a digital 'goldmine'Under The Radar Anguilla's country-code domain name is raking in millions from a surprise windfall
-
GPT-5: Not quite ready to take over the worldFeature OpenAI rolls back its GPT-5 model after a poorly received launch
-
Deep thoughts: AI shows its math chopsFeature Google's Gemini is the first AI system to win gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad
-
The jobs most at risk from AIThe Explainer Sales and customer services are touted as some of the key jobs that will be replaced by AI
