This week at the I/O conference, Google unveiled a new artificial intelligence capable of helping Internet users identify skin problems. The company hopes to launch a pilot project later this year.
Google I/O is a springtime conference hosted by Google at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. For this year, due to the pandemic, Sundar Pichai and his teams presented the major innovations directly online. Among the many announcements discussed was a web-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people identify skin, hair or nail diseases.
The principle is as follows:it will be enough to use the camera of your smartphone to take three photos of the problem area (for example, a rash on the front -arms). A series of questions will then be asked about their skin type or to target other possible symptoms.
Trained on a set of 288 diseases, the tool will then offer a possible diagnosis. The model naturally takes into account factors such as age, skin type, gender and race when suggesting possible illnesses.
Tested on nearly a thousand images of skin conditions from a wide range of patients, Google claims to have identified the correct skin condition in one three suggestions offered84% of the time . The team will soon also work with researchers at Stanford University to test the effectiveness of the tool in a healthcare setting.
Google has decided to tackle skin conditions due to the prevalence of requests for these problems on the famous search engine.
“We receive around ten billion queries a year about the condition of skin, nails or horses “, explains to The Verge Karen DeSalvo, health manager at Google Health. “Two billion people in the world suffer from dermatological problems, but there is a global shortage of specialists. Although many people's first step is to go to a Google search bar, it can be difficult to describe what you see on your skin in words alone."
Naturally, this next application will not aim to replace the dermatologist. Also the opinion of a doctor will always be essential to establish a true diagnosis. "We hope instead that it will give you access to authoritative information so that you can make a more informed decision on your next step", notes Karen DeSalvo.
The company has obtained a Class I medical device mark for the tool in the European Union, designating it as a low-risk medical device. It has not yet been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
