IRVINE, Calif. — Artificial intelligence continues to be a game changer in the health care field. 

Pierre Baldi is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Irvine. He works alongside his team to create AI models to improve accuracy in medical imaging. Baldi, who has been a professor at UCI for 25 years, has helped develop a model that is able to detect potentially problematic polyps during colonoscopies. 

“Our AI system detects the polyps and puts a green bounding box around the polyps that it detects,” Baldi said. “It can do this in real time, with accuracy that is very high compared to human experts.”

The American College of Radiology conducted a study, and found that 33.5% of radiologists across the country are using AI. 

Andrew Browne is an associate professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at UCI. He works alongside Baldi to create AI models. Browne says the technology won’t necessarily replace human beings in the medical field, but will act as an assistant to professionals. 

“Over the next five-to-10 years, we will start to these tools showing up in our clinics,” Browne said. “And really being adjuncts to the clinician.”

While AI is viewed as a game changer when it comes to the medical field, there is still some concern about the technology and potential issues for patients and physicians. 

“If any mistake happens, anyway, throughout this process, who is going to be responsible?” asked Dr. Arash Bedayat, who is an assistant professor of radiology at UCLA. “The machine? Or the physician? Who’s going to be responsible?”

Baldi agrees that there are some potential issues with the technology that need to be refined, but he says AI isn’t anymore dangerous than human beings.

“If you think about our own intelligence, it’s not safe at all,” Baldi said. “If you look at the history of mankind, it’s all about wars, and torture, and building ever more sophisticated weapons.”

With more than three decades of experience in computer science, Baldi says his goals remain the same as they were when he began his career.

“Ultimately, that’s what you want to do as a scientist. You want to do good,” Baldi said. “And to improve the world we live in and help other human beings.”