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Recently, Meta AI Research, the academic laboratory of Meta, has released its latest artificial intelligence (AI) research project called BlenderBot 3. The newly introduced chatbot can search the internet, interact with people and communicate about nearly any topic. It is the newest release of Meta’s AI laboratory, which shows further improvements of Meta’s conversational AI capabilities. But what is a conversational AI? 

It is the synthetic brainpower that makes it possible for machines like the BlenderBot3 to understand, process, and respond to human language (boost.ai, n.d.). The virtual agent, consisting of a variety of technologies, is capable of communication via text by deciphering language and react in a human-like manner. Meta (2022) states that the BlenderBot 3 can have very natural conversations with the person chatting to it and the same person in turn can help improving the future responses of the chatbot by replying to it. Additionally, the tech giant also confirms that the learnings collected through the BlenderBot 3 model will be shared with the scientific community and further enhance research in conversational AI. In order to further improve the BlenderBot 3 from its predecessors, BlenderBot 1 and 2, the team of Meta AI Research, collected more than 20,000 conversations consisting of more than 1,000 topics (Meta, 2022). Through the various interactions the chatbot will further increase its capabilities and refined responses. As of right now, the chatbot is only available in the United States.

Most of us have already encountered conversational AI, whether it is Siri on Apple’s iPhones or customer service chatbots trying to help us resolve our problems before a human customer service agent steps in. The intended business values of the technology are clear: better customer experience, reduced waiting time, and faster problem solving. In various industries we can find application of this technology, ranging from banking and retail to healthcare. However, like everything else, there are not always only positive effects. For instance, screenshots of conversations with the BlenderBot 3 were published, where the virtual agent spread misinformation and offensive content (WAYA, 2022). Can you think of additional downsides of conversational AI?

References

Blenderbot 3: An AI chatbot that improves through conversation (2022) Meta. Available at: https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/blenderbot-ai-chatbot-improves-through-conversation/ (Accessed: October 6, 2022). 

Meta’s AI chatbot turns to the Dark Side (2022) WAYA. Available at: https://waya.media/metas-ai-chatbot-turns-to-the-dark-side/ (Accessed: October 6, 2022). 

What is conversational ai? what it is and how it works (no date) What is conversational AI? What it is and how it works. Available at: https://www.boost.ai/knowledge/what-is-conversational-ai (Accessed: October 6, 2022). 

Picture: https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/blenderbot-ai-chatbot-improves-through-conversation/ (retrieved on October 6, 2022)

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One of the most important industries of our time is the healthcare industry. At some point, everyone gets sick, and in these moments, we rely on our healthcare professionals to make the right decisions and help us in the best possible way.

With the entire world evolving and innovative technologies disrupting different industries, the healthcare industry has also made great advances. Especially, the application of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) pose as one of the most promising progresses in training of medical staff for surgeries (Hastings, 2022).

Augmented Reality glasses enhance the vision field of the user with additional information (Hastings, 2022). There are already multiple use cases of AR glasses deployed by medical professionals when performing surgical procedures, especially in the orthopedic area (Chytas, Malahias & Nikolaou, 2022).

One of the use cases was in 2020, performed by orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Abraham del Real. Using the HoloLens, he saw an overlay of scans of the patient and models on the surgical field during the procedure (Accenture, 2020). Having important information of the patient before the eyes, the surgeon can fully focus on the surgery while the handsfree technology provides the surgeon with real-time and critical data, such as patient anatomy and scans (Hastings, 2022). AR can also be utilized for educational purposes in healthcare. For instance, inexperienced medical professionals can use AR to learn from more senior professionals. Experienced surgeons can remotely supervise surgeries without being physically in the room (XRtoday, 2022).

Aside from utilizing AR technology in healthcare, VR technologies are also used for surgeries and educational purposes. Whereas AR for example enhances the field of the surgeon, VR can create an entire virtual operating room (McCallum, 2022). Last months, a surgeon from Latin America separated a set of conjoined twins with the help VR (McCallum, 2022). By utilising VR technologies, a team of specialists, located in different countries, experimented with different techniques and approaches using VR projections based on CT and MRI scans of the twins. They operated in the same virtual room and therefore gained experience and useful insights before the actual surgery. This way, the risks and complications during the surgery were reduced (McCallum, 2022) because the doctors were already familiar with the planned procedure.

The collaboration between surgeon and AR or VR are already under their way. If one day you were in need of surgery, would you want your doctor to integrate these technologies in your surgery?

References

Conn Hastings, 2022 ‘AR Headset Helps Surgeons Place Implants: Interview with Louie Vogt of Enovis Surgical | Medgadget, 18 August. Available at: https://www.medgadget.com/2022/08/ar-headset-helps-surgeons-place-implants-interview-with-louie-vogt-of-enovis-surgical.html (Accessed: 16 September 2022).

Augmented Reality (AR) for Surgical Success Case Study | Accenture (2020). Available at: https://www.accenture.com/ae-en/case-studies/technology/microsoft-hololens-surgery (Accessed: 20 September 2022).

Shiona McCallum 2022, ‘Conjoined twins separated with the help of virtual reality’, | BBC News, 1 August. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62378452 (Accessed: 16 September 2022).

Chytas, D., Malahias, M.-A. and Nikolaou, V.S. (2019) ‘Augmented Reality in Orthopedics: Current State and Future Directions’, Frontiers in Surgery, 6, p. 38. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2019.00038.

How Is AR Transforming the Healthcare Industry? (2022) XR Today, 1 March. Available at: https://www.xrtoday.com/augmented-reality/how-is-ar-transforming-the-healthcare-industry/ (Accessed: 20 September 2022).

‘Is the healthcare industry spearheading the metaverse?’ (2022) Verdict, 25 August. Available at: https://www.verdict.co.uk/is-the-healthcare-industry-spearheading-the-metaverse/ (Accessed: 16 September 2022).