In Hungary, early testing results show that artificial intelligence has an "impressive ability" to detect signs of breast cancer missed by doctors, The New York Times reports.
Dr. Edith Karpati, a radiologist, told the Times that when looking at hundreds of X-rays a day, "it's so easy to miss tiny lesions." Her son, Peter Kecskemethy, is the co-founder of Kheiron Medical Technologies, an AI software company that aims to assist doctors screening for breast cancer. The AI systems are fed millions of mammograms of patients whose diagnoses are known, as well as images labeled by radiologists to teach the AI to detect cancerous growths by their shapes, locations, and density, the Times reports. By then creating a mathematical representation of normal mammograms and those with cancers, the system compares that baseline to spot abnormalities in mammograms.
In 2022, after testing more than 275,000 breast cancer cases, Kheiron said its AI technology can spot cancer at least as well as doctors as the second reader of scans, and reduced the workload of radiologists by at least 30 percent. Additional testing at a clinic in Hungary found the AI software was able to identify more malignancies, increasing the cancer detection rate by 13 percent. "It's a huge breakthrough," Dr. András Vadászy, director of the MaMMA Klinika, told the Times. "If this process will save one or two lives, it will be worth it."
Subscribe to 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.
The technology is meant to be used alongside doctors, not to replace them, and more clinical trials are needed so the systems can produce accurate results on women of all ages, ethnicities, and body types.
-
August 16 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include football season anticipation, and Donald Trump angling for Putin's autograph
-
5 hilariously cold cartoons about the Alaska summitCartoons Artists take on the Alaskan totem pole, a peace flag, and more
-
Sudoku medium: August 16, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
Bacteria can turn plastic waste into a painkillerUnder the radar The process could be a solution to plastic pollution
-
Scientists want to regrow human limbs. Salamanders could lead the way.Under the radar Humans may already have the genetic mechanism necessary
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
A potentially mutating bat virus has some scientists worried about the next pandemicUnder the Radar One subgroup of bat merbecovirus has scientists concerned
