Microsoft's AI beats doctors on hard cases; AI phage given to patient (opens the source in a new tab)
- Reuters reports that a Microsoft AI tool that works up patients step by step, choosing questions and tests as it goes, was more than twice as accurate as general physicians on over 300 complex cases in a study in Science, and its work-ups cost less.
- The Independent reports that California lab Radical Numerics says it gave phages designed by its Omnii-1 model to a patient with an antibiotic-resistant infection under compassionate use; outcomes are undisclosed and await peer review.
- Microsoft will next test emergency-room triage with Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston.
- 2x+
- accuracy vs general physicians
- 300+
- complex cases tested
Why it matters Medicine's bottlenecks are reaching the right diagnosis and finding a treatment fast. Both stories show AI shortening those steps, which matters most for rare cases and resistant infections.
Other side Benchmark cases are not hospital wards, and the doctors in the study worked with textbooks and the internet rather than colleagues. The phage claim has no published outcome. Trials and regulators will decide.