A robot trained on videos of surgeries performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal without human help. The robot operated for the first time on a lifelike patient, and during the operation, responded to and learned from voice commands from the team—like a novice surgeon working with a mentor.

The robot performed unflappably across trials and with the expertise of a skilled human surgeon, even during unexpected scenarios typical in real life medical emergencies.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    See the part that I dont like is that this is a learning algorithm trained on videos of surgeries.

    That’s such a fucking stupid idea. Thats literally so much worse than letting surgeons use robot arms to do surgeries as your primary source of data and making fine tuned adjustments based on visual data in addition to other electromagnetic readings

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      2 hours ago

      Yeah but the training set of videos is probably infinitely larger, and the thing about AI is that if the training set is too small they don’t really work at all. Once you get above a certain data set size they start to become competent.

      After all I assume the people doing this research have already considered that. I doubt they’re reading your comment right now and slapping their foreheads and going damn this random guy on the internet is right, he’s so much more intelligent than us scientists.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      15 hours ago

      If it were the only option, I’d gladly take it.

      I rely on robots to do a lot of other things in my life, directly and indirectly.

      Well, not many directly. But machines, definitely.

  • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Not fair. A robot can watch videos and perform surgery but when I do it I’m called a “monster” and “quack”.

    But seriously, this robot surgeon still needs a surgeon to chaperone so what’s being gained or saved? It’s just surgery with extra steps. This has the same execution as RoboTaxis (which also have a human onboard for emergencies) and those things are rightly being called a nightmare. What separates this from that?

  • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    So… Judging by recent trends in AI, this will be used to devalue the labor of surgeons and be provided as the only option available to people who are not rich. People will die from what would get a human charged with neglegent homicide but, it will be covered up and, when it comes to light just how dangerous it is, nothing will happen because all of the regulatory agencies have been dismantled.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      2 hours ago

      Outside of the US there are pretty stringent rules about what can and cannot be used in the medical profession. Typically it will take at least a decade for a drug to be approved, which is actually a problem in and of itself, but you’re not concerned about that, you’re concerned about technology being used before it’s ready.

      As for “devaluing the work of surgeons”, surgeons are overworked as it is, there is nowhere near enough of them. If they don’t have to do simple procedures then they are available to do the more complex surgeries that actually require skill. They’ll be fine. Wealth isn’t really a factor in countries where healthcare isn’t profit motivated.

    • percent@infosec.pub
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      9 hours ago

      OR maybe everyone — including the poor — will eventually have access to robotic surgeons with the equivalent of like 500 human years of experience, but with the latest surgical best practices that have only existed in recent years. The experience gained by a single surgery could be shared across all of them.

      We’re talking about surgery. If some technology can provide significantly more valuable labor than its human counterpart (which, in this case, could mean more lives saved), then it might actually be worth exploring.

      • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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        4 hours ago

        That would be wonderful. The current way that the world has been “working” for a good while now makes me think it unlikely, unfortunately. The vast majority of technological innovation in the last half-century has been used to extract wealth and replace options available to the non-ultra-wealthy with inferior substitutes that are cheaper to make, often for the same effective cost.

    • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 hours ago

      I would rather get surgery done by a robot than not get it done at all. I’m not gonna be picky about “devaluing surgeons” if my life is on the line, but if that’s the hill you wanna die on then good on ya, mate.

  • catty@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    so theoretically they could make sex bots and train them on… so they perform ‘unflappably’!

  • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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    1 day ago

    This was a new word for me, so I had to look it up: It’s an… interesting choice of words to describe the success of a robot.
    Of course a robot would perform the job unflappably, it is emotionless by design. I’m pretty sure it would go right ahead and murder the patient unflappably as well. The robot “keeping its cool” is not even a question.

    That said, this does sound very impressive, even if I think there’s some pretty crazy risks involved. Hopefully they have more respect for the problem then self-driving car companies.

  • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “OMG it was supposed to take out my LEFT kidney! I’m gonna die!!!”

    “Oops, the surgeon in the training video took out a Right kidney. Uhh… sorry.”

    • Smoogs@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      You underestimate the demands on a surgeon’s body to perform surgery. This makes it much less prone to tiredness, mistakes, or even if the surgeon is physically incapable in any way of continuing life saving surgery

    • nevetsg@aussie.zone
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      2 days ago

      I have seen enough ER to know that operating theatre staff work as a team. So I consider this would be a good thing.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    So are we fully abandoning reason based robots?

    Is the future gonna just be things that guess but just keep getting better at guessing?

    I’m disappointed in the future.

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Naturally as this kind of thing moves into use on actual people it will be used on the wealthiest and most connected among us in equal measure to us lowly plebs right…right?

    • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Are you kidding!? It’ll be rolled out to poor people first! (gotta iron out the last of the bugs somehow)

      • HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        You really don’t understand modern medical bullshit. The rich will be all over this, just like AI, Just like NFTs just like every bullshit thing that comes up they get roped into by a flashy salesman

        • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          Oh yeah, I’ve been successfully propagandized into thinking rich people became rich through merit, I forgot how many of them are complete morons XD

          Thanks for reminding me

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    Hold on 3P0…you gotta little piece of human stuff stuck on your right end effector clamp top hinge pin. There, all good! Continue!