In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been making remarkable strides in various industries, and healthcare is no exception. Google, a tech giant renowned for innovation, has introduced Med-PaLM 2, an advanced AI tool designed to address medical inquiries and provide valuable information.
Since its testing phase at reputable institutions like the Mayo Clinic research hospital, Med-PaLM 2 has attracted attention for its potential to revolutionize healthcare services worldwide.
Google’s AI Tool ‘Med-PaLM 2’ Under Testing at Mayo Clinic
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google’s Med-PaLM 2, an AI tool developed to answer medical queries, has been undergoing testing at prestigious institutions like the Mayo Clinic research hospital since April.
Med-PaLM 2 is a modified version of PaLM 2, which was initially unveiled at the Google I/O conference in May. PaLM 2 serves as the foundational language model for Google’s Bard.
The report reveals that Google believes Med-PaLM 2, with its updated capabilities, can be particularly valuable in regions with limited access to healthcare professionals.
It has been trained on a curated set of medical expert demonstrations, which Google believes distinguishes it from more general chatbots like Bard, Bing, and ChatGPT, making it more proficient in healthcare-related conversations.
The Wall Street Journal also mentions a research paper published by Google in May (pdf), which pointed out some of the accuracy issues typically associated with large language models.
Med-PaLM 2’s Performances
Physicians who participated in the study found more inaccuracies and irrelevant information in the responses generated by Google’s Med-PaLM and Med-PaLM 2 compared to those provided by other doctors.
However, Med-PaLM 2 performed reasonably well in other metrics, such as demonstrating logical reasoning, providing consensus-supported answers, and avoiding instances of incorrect comprehension, placing it on par with human doctors.
The report indicates that customers involved in the testing of Med-PaLM 2 will retain control over their data, which will be encrypted, ensuring that Google does not have access to it.
Greg Corrado, a senior research director at Google, mentioned in the WSJ report that Med-PaLM 2 is still in its early stages. While Corrado expressed reservations about relying on it for his own family’s healthcare needs, he believes that Med-PaLM 2 has the potential to significantly augment the application of AI in healthcare, expanding its benefits by tenfold in areas where AI can be advantageous.
