Why doesn’t Streams use AI?

One of the questions Im most often asked about Streams, our secure mobile healthcare app, is why is DeepMind making something that doesnt use artificial intelligence?Its a fair question to ask of an artificial intelligence (AI) company. When we first started thinking about working in healthcare, our natural focus was on AI and how it could be used to help the NHS and its patients. We see huge potential for AI to revolutionise our understanding of diseases - how they develop and are diagnosed - which could, in turn, help scientists discover new treatments, care pathways and cures.In the early days of DeepMind Health, we met with clinicians at the Royal Free Hospital in London who wanted to know if AI could improve care for patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI). AKI is notoriously difficult to spot, and can result in serious illness or even death if left untreated. AKI is currently detected by applying a formula (called the AKI algorithm) to NHS patients blood tests. This algorithm is good, but its widely known that it isnt perfect. For example, it has a tendency to generate false positives for patients with chronic (as opposed to acute) kidney disease.