Google can predict the time of a person’s death with a greater accuracy than doctors using an algorithm that forecasts people’s mortality.
The technology giant’s “Magic Brain” team used neural networks, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), to work out whether patients admitted to hospital were likely to die during their stay, remain for a week or longer, or be readmitted within 30 days of discharge.
The algorithm crunched 175,639 data points from the records of a woman with metastatic breast cancer to give her a 20 per cent chance of dying before discharge. The “early warning score” typically used by hospitals gave her a 9 per cent chance of dying. She died in the hospital within a fortnight.