As technology is driving progress in science and research, they create a “magic cycle”, Yossi Matias, Head of Google Research, explains in his capitvating DLD25 presentation.
In many ways, artificial intelligence is “accelerating this magic cycle”, Matias says because AI is “going to be expanding human capability and empower all of us.”
Highlighting AI’s role in healthcare, Matias shares the success of AI-powered diabetic retinopathy screenings, which have prevented vision loss for hundreds of thousands of people.
In Bangkok, “patients get into a room, sit in front of a camera, and in two minutes [they are] getting a diagnosis that can save them from losing their eyesight”, Matias says, noting that there are plans to expand the program to “over six million screenings in the next decade” in Thailand and India.
The talk also highlights breakthroughs like AlphaFold in biology, as well as environmental applications, such as the development of a flood prediction system called Flood Hub that provides realtime alerts to over 700 million people.
Looking ahead, Matias emphasizes emerging technologies like quantum computing and AI-powered scientific assistants that promise to accelerate computation and discovery even further.
“When we think about where we’re heading, one thing to remember is the following”, he notes. “Many of the things that we take for granted today were not there just a couple of years ago.”
