The moment I hit the ground, I knew it was broken. I was rock climbing with my wife the day before embarking on a weeklong canoe trip. Half-way up the rock face, I lost my grip and fell. I landed hard on my right foot, which immediately buckled and rolled. The pain was excruciating.
Rinda wanted to take me straight to the emergency room. I should have listened to her, but I knew that would be the end of our vacation. I also figured I wouldn’t do much walking in a canoe, so I quickly learned to hobble on one foot and spent the week canoeing down the beautiful Green river.
When we arrived back home in Atlanta, Rinda took me to the ER, where I got an x-ray. The result was not surprising. A fractured ankle and heel bone. What was a surprise was that my x-ray had been reviewed – not only by a radiologist – but also by a computer. Artificial intelligence is becoming as good at reading some types of medical images as well-trained doctors.
And it’s not just doctors and hospitals. These days, it seems that everywhere I turn people are talking about machine learning and artificial intelligence. Attending conferences, there’s no shortage of confident speculation about its disruptive and transformational potential for the power industry. Talking to OEMs and vendors, you’d think they’ve got the perfect AI solution to solve all your problems.
