Google Inc has struck a deal with healthcare company Johnson & Johnson to develop surgical robots that use artificial intelligence.
Google’s life sciences division is set to work with Johnson & Johnson’s medical device company Ethicon to create a robotics-assisted surgical platform to help doctors in the operating theater.
The robots will aid surgeons in minimally invasive operations, giving operators greater control and accuracy than is possible by hand, minimizing trauma and damage to the patient. Some systems allow surgeons to remotely control devices inside the patient’s body to minimize entry wounds and reduce blood loss and scarring.
Robotic surgical systems like the Da Vinci device developed by Imperial College London have been used in general operations since the early 2000s, and even starred in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough in 2002.
Google believes it can enhance the robotic tools using artificial intelligence technologies, including machine vision and image analysis employed in other parts of the business, including its self-driving cars.
The two companies will explore how advanced imaging and sensors could complement surgeons’ abilities, for example by highlighting blood vessels, nerve cells, tumor margins or other important structures that could be hard to discern in tissue by eye or on a screen.
Augmented reality systems are to be used to overlay important information required during surgery that is typically displayed on multiple monitors stacked around the surgeon, such as preoperative images, lab test results and details of previous surgeries.
“We look forward to exploring how smart software could help give surgeons the information they need at just the right time during an operation,” Google head of the life sciences Andy Conrad said.
Google will provide software and expertise for data analysis and vision, but will not be developing the control mechanisms for the robots.
The partnership will help Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare product manufacturer, compete in the growing field of robotic medical devices.
Google’s life sciences team is also developing systems that can detect cancer and heart attacks using nano particles, and has worked on smart contact lenses that contain sensors capable of monitoring the signs of diabetes — technology that was licensed by the Swiss drug firm Novartis in July last year to develop into a practical medical application.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)