How Microsoft computer scientists and researchers are working to ‘solve‘ cancer

Even though bio-medicine was quick to make use of robotics and internet of things, its adoption of artificial intelligence has been slow and limited. However, with Microsoft aiming to develop cancer solutions with the help of artificial intelligence, things may change quickly. The US-based technology giant announced on Tuesday that it would be using machine learning to analyse tumour and developing new medication regimes besides working on its project “moonshot” which will help it create biological cells that can be programmed like computers. Though it all seems very ambitious at the moment, if successful, Microsoft would be able to treat cancer like a computer code, where programmed cells mutate to counter cancer.

While targeted medicine is something that IBM is also doing, with its Watson Oncology project, the programmable cell would be the first such initiative. Besides, Microsoft has also said that it would be using AI in radiology by using machine vision tools to analyse CT scans of tumours, much like Google’s DeepMind which, in partnership with the University College, London, has been instrumental in treatment of head and neck cancers. While solutions would still take some years before they can be put to mass use, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and robotics could one day help cure the king of maladies.