Survey humanitarian AI applications – AI Forum C2 Montreal #C2M18

This morning there is another panel for the AI Forum at the C2 Montreal

Panel: AI for good
This panel will survey humanitarian AI applications — how AI is being implemented to help charities and climate change initiatives, for example — and encourage participants to conceptualize their own inspiring humanitarian AI projects.

Panelists:

Stephen Spittle, Emerging Technology Lead in Digital Intelligence at Satellite Applications Catapult
Jonathan Kanevsky, Head of Clinical Innovation, Imagia Cybernetics
Emil Hewage, Founder & Director, Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems ltd
Steve Mutabazi, Chief Investment Strategist, Rwanda Development Board
Moderator: Khari Johnson, Staff Writer, Venturebeat

Khari Johnson briefly lists some uses of AI
– AI and cameras can be used to help find lost children and monitor for dissidents
– Computer vision to increase crop yields

All three speakers discussed their companies and projects. Below is information about each of the three companies and their projects.

There was then a panel discussion question about countering the Terminator-Skynet meme with the reality of beneficial AI. The reality is using data and AI.

It was observed that the satellite AI company, neural device AI medicine company and the body imaging company could combine to make something like skynet and a scary implant scenario. But fortunately they are trying to help solve problems.

Stephen Spittle, Catapult Satellite Apps
illegal fishing is a problem. Threatening livelihood of 12% of world population
Catapult satellites can monitor ocean ships

Identify using AIS to see if they trawling or other activities. Other activity can also be identified from watching movement remotely.
They can tell the ports that some ships should be checked or denied services

The Satellite Applications Catapult is an independent innovation and technology company, created by Innovate UK to drive economic growth through the exploitation of space. We work with businesses of all sizes to realise their potential from space infrastructure and its applications.

They are also looking at using technology to remove space debris. Harpoons, magnets and other systems for removing space debris. AI is needed to track and target debris.

Emil Hewage – Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems
Attack chronic medical conditions (paralysis, heart conditions etc…)

They are trying to correct nerve systems in the body to mitigate chronic conditions using neural devices.

They are solving the complex problems of successfully integrating and communicating with the human body using a combination of applied materials, machine learning and AI, neuroscience, software design, and advanced surgical techniques. Their mission is to create the open standard platform to support high functionality neural & bionic treatments, making it easy for clinicians, engineers and researchers to develop and deliver superior treatments to patients.

Powered by Neural data
The nervous system is the main communications network within our bodies.

It’s a system that carries electrical impulses to control virtually every organ and bodily function. Many common chronic conditions often occur as a result of a failure or change in our neural pathways.
If we can understand and correct these signals in real time, for each individual patient, we can treat chronic illnesses in an effective, automated, and personalized way.

In the same way that DNA is biology’s hard drive, the nervous system is the biological internet. Our mission is to build the tools to understand and communicate with it.

Cambridge Bio-Augmentation Systems is a full stack neural interface company.

Jonathan Kanevsky, Head of Clinical Innovation, Imagia Cybernetics
Creating a full stack of services for personalized medicine

They are scaling up an AI-driven collaborative discovery ecosystem to deliver impactful products and services for personalized healthcare.

Deep Radiomics
AI designed to deliver clinical actionable imaging biomarkers as robust as those yielded from pharmacogenomic diagnostics

Deep Radiomics is a scaled up discovery process based on proprietary deep learning architectures.

They design AI systems for imbalanced and weakly labeled routine patient data.

The Government of Québec awards, through the BioMed Propulsion program, a $ 3 million loan to Imagia to support an artificial intelligence project applied to personalized healthcare.

Imagia is a Québec-based company whose team will soon surpass 50 employees with expertise in both AI research and development, and clinical patient management. Imagia will move its head office to the City of Artificial Intelligence Montreal at the end of this year, to join the researchers of the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA) and the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO), and other notable companies in the field.

Olympus partners with Imagia

Olympus, a global technology leader in designing and delivering innovative solutions for medical and surgical procedures, among other core businesses, announced today its co-development agreement with ai4gi, a commercial joint venture between Satis Operations and Imagia. Their Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution for real-time clinical decision support during screening and surveillance colonoscopy procedures will be exclusively offered by Olympus America Inc. (OAI). This co-development agreement is intended to raise the bar for all physicians to ultimately improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs and enhance quality of life for patients.

The integration of AI into the colonoscopy procedure holds great promise for the future of GI screening for physicians and patients. Ai4gi initially developed this clinical decision support tool using a large volume of unaltered endoscopic colonoscopy videos from global physician experts in combination with deep learning training models. By incorporating AI, Olympus is investing in technology that will elevate all clinicians while unlocking new ways to treat disease for patients. This is the first co-development agreement of its kind in the U.S. market and is the first time an AI proof-of-concept has been demonstrated clinically in real-time in a screening colonoscopy application.

Colon cancer continues to be a major health issue in the U.S. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 140,000 Americans—men and women—are diagnosed with colon cancer every year, and over 50,000 die from the disease. While colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cancer killer in the U.S. among men and women combined, it is the most detectable and treatable form if detected early. Olympus is the leading manufacturer of medical devices used to peer inside the human body to help medical practitioners detect, diagnose, and treat gastrointestinal diseases such as colon cancer.

“ai4gi’s solutions to early colon cancer recognition are going to be a game-changer in the field of Gastroenterology” said Dr. Michael Byrne, CEO of Satis Operations and Clinical Lead at ai4gi. “These solutions are what the industry needs for more timely and more effective patient care, and Olympus is an ideal industry partner to drive clinical adoption of this technology. As doctors, we all need help to improve our practice, so why not use the best technology available?”

“We are thrilled to add Artificial Intelligence to our already powerful endoscopy portfolio which we feel is an emerging and essential core competency in this space,” said Kurt Heine, Group Vice President of the Endoscopy Division at Olympus America Inc. “Our vision is to add Artificial Intelligence to our platform to improve the assessment of colon cancer screening as well as potentially other endoscopic procedures. Better visibility, along with increased efficiency, can bring us closer to our goal of improving quality of care, reducing healthcare costs and enhancing patient satisfaction.”