Watson for Oncology isn’t an AI that fights cancer, it’s an unproven mechanical turk that represents the guesses of a small group of doctors

Posted on November 13, 2017 by hanshowe

The doctors who use the service assume that it’s a data-driven AI that’s using data from participating hospitals to create massive data-sets of cancer treatments and outcomes and refine its inferences. That’s how IBM advertises it. But that’s not how it works.

In reality, Watson for Oncology is a “mechanical turk” — a human-driven engine masquerading as an artificial intelligence. The way it actually works is by convening a small panel of cancer experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, who come up with recommendations for specific patient profiles. These recommendations represent the best guesses of these experts, supported by medical literature and personal experience.

IBM has never allowed an independent study of Watson for Oncology. No followup is done to evaluate whether its recommendations help patients.

There are several problems with this approach. First, there is the deceptive marketing of Watson for Oncology to doctors and patients, who believe they are getting a global, data-driven, empirical recommendation, as opposed to the subjective judgment of a small panel of experts.

see more at https://boingboing.net/2017/11/13/little-man-behind-the-curtain.html

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New Microsoft Word attacks infect PCs sans macros

Posted on November 13, 2017 by hanshowe

Microsoft tells customers how to spot and block attacks.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/russia-linked-fancy-bear-attacks-abuse-macro-less-ms-word-to-infect-pcs/

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Mushrooms are full of antioxidants that may have antiaging potential

Posted on November 13, 2017 by hanshowe

Date:November 9, 2017
Source:Penn State Summary: Mushrooms may contain unusually high amounts of two antioxidants that some scientists suggest could help fight aging and bolster health, according to a team of researchers. “It’s preliminary, but you can see that countries that have more ergothioneine in their diets, countries like France and Italy, also have lower incidents of neurodegenerative diseases, while people in countries like the United States, which has low amounts of ergothioneine in the diet, have a higher probability of diseases like Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s,” said Beelman. “Now, whether that’s just a correlation or causative, we don’t know. But, it’s something to look into, especially because the difference between the countries with low rates of neurodegenerative diseases is about 3 milligrams per day, which is about five button mushrooms each day.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171109100409.htm

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