Annual lecture: Healthcare and artificial Intelligence

Dr Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, the world's leading artificial intelligence company.

The Institute of Global Health Innovation host their seventh annual lecture.

Imperial staff, students and guests were honoured to welcome Dr Demis Hassabis to South Kensington last week to hear him present the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s (IGHI) seventh annual lecture. 

Dr Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, drew on his experience as an AI researcher, neuroscientist, chess prodigy and game designer to discuss the ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs are helping us discover new scientific insights. He also explained AI's tremendous potential for improving healthcare, touching on DeepMind's recent ground-breaking health projects. 

DeepMind is a neuroscience-inspired AI company which develops general-purpose learning algorithms and uses them to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.  Established in 2010 in London, the mission of DeepMind is to first solve intelligence and then use it to make the world a better place.  It does this by fusing together the best from academia and business, providing them with the required resources to work together in order to accelerate progress in the world of AI.  In the healthcare field, this could result in better clinical outcomes, enhanced patient and clinician experience, and reduced costs for both doctor and patient.    

AI and healthcare

“AI could be applied for positive impact in a number of ways in healthcare,” said Dr Hassabis. 

Throughout the talk, he gave a number of examples of current DeepMind innovations, such as their mobile app, Streams, which is helping clinicians at The Royal Free treat patients faster, and went into detail about how AI could improve healthcare around the world. 

He also noted the potential ethical considerations to consider when applying and deploying any new technology and stressed the importance in taking the time to figure out the correct regulatory structures in order to overcome any potential challenges and pitfalls. 

“We were delighted to welcome Dr Hassabis for such a brilliant and insightful lecture.  A very unique person who you rarely get the privilege to hear present. A polymath – someone who has had an amazing life at such a young age.  A child chess prodigy, playing competitively from the age of 6 all the way through to the creation of DeepMind back in 2010 with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, Demis’ work has been paramount in applying intelligence to make the world a better place,” said Professor the Lord Ara Darzi, Director of IGHI.

In her closing remarks, Imperial’s President Professor Alice Gast thanked Dr Hassabis “for being such an inspirational person. You’ve inspired and motivated us all to strive harder and reach higher,” said Professor Gast “And your approach to life is very inspiring. Your support and partnership with Imperial has helped Imperial and IGHI keep working towards evidence based healthcare and we are very pleased and honoured to be working with you. On behalf of Imperial and IGHI, we would like to thank you for an incredibly inspiring lecture.” 

View the photos on Flickr here.  

Profs Darzi, Gast, Dr Hassabis and Prof Nick Jennings.