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August 2015

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Cancer

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
  • 2Department of Hematology-Oncology, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, California
JAMA Oncol. 2015;1(5):573-574. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.1203

Even though the original computers were designed in 1936, computers have become part of the social and professional fabrics of our lives only since the mid-1980s, enhancing workplace and individual productivities. Computers are still evolving, and so are the ways we use them. Artificial intelligence (computers) and big data (incorporating large volumes of information into computers) are gaining wide acceptance in different fields. Consider “Deep Blue,” an IBM-trained chess computer that beat Gary Kasparov, the chess world champion.1 Another IBM-trained Watson System won the Jeopardy! game against champions.2 After 12 years of refinements, poker computers now consistently win against poker world champions.3

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