“We propose that a 2 month, 10 man study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.” One of the first uses of the term “artificial intelligence” came in this 1955 proposal for a summer research project. At that point, artificial intelligence (AI) was still a relatively young development in society: one that wouldn’t enter healthcare for another 20 years.

Now, artificial intelligence - or the combination of computer science and datasets to stimulate human intelligence and skills - has a variety of applications in healthcare, such as automating specific tasks, analyzing medical information, or making a diagnosis. Algorithms, chat boxes, smart assistants, and other forms of AI are able to perform these tasks - and then improve their own performance - based on data. They’re given data, analyze it, and get feedback to reinforce their correct answers, decisions, and information and to discourage - and therefore limit - any incorrect ones.