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Hello. This is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English.
I'm Neil.
And I'm Sam.
Are you feeling well, Sam?
No headache or sore throat?
No, I feel fine thanks, Neil.
Why do you ask?
Well, I've been reading some
inspirational stories about the
doctors and nurses fighting Covid.
When I was a boy, I always
dreamed of becoming a doctor.
Ah, I see. Have you ever
been in hospital?
Yes, I have, and I remember the
nurse's bedside manner - you
know, the kind and caring way
that doctors and nurses treat
people who are ill.
Nowadays more and more
of the jobs that
humans do are being carried
out by machines. But I doubt
that a doctor's bedside manner
could easily be replaced
by a robot.
In this programme, we'll be
discussing whether the revolution
in artificial intelligence, often
shortened to 'AI', could replace
human doctors and nurses.
We'll be asking: can you imagine
a future without doctors?
In fact, machines are already
doing some of the jobs
traditionally done by doctors -
scanning people's bodies to
detect skin cancer, for example.
Yes, that's true, Sam, and it
links to my quiz question which
is about human skin. It's a
well-known fact that skin is the
human body's largest organ - but
how much skin does the average
adult have? Is it:
a) 2 square metres?,
b) 3 square metres? or,
c) 4 square metres?
Of course our skin gets loose as we
age but I can't believe there's 3
square metres of it! I'll say the
answer is a) 2 square metres.
OK, we'll find out if that's correct
later. Every year in the UK over
5 million people are treated for
skin cancer. Catch it early and
your chances of survival
are increased.
Usually a skin specialist, or
dermatologist, will examine your
skin using a handheld microscope.
But in 2017, a team of researchers
at Stanford Medical School made
an exciting announcement.
Here's Oxford University researcher
Daniel Susskind, telling BBC World
Service programme, The Big Idea,
what the medics at Stanford
had invented:
A team of researchers at Stamford
last year announced the development
of a system that, if you give it a
photo of a freckle it can tell you as
accurately as twenty-one leading
dermatologists whether or not
that freckle is cancerous.
The Stanford medical team had
invented an AI system to analyse
freckles - small brown spots found
on people s skin, especially
on pale skin.
As it turned out the AI programme
was better than human doctors at
telling whether a freckle was
harmless or cancerous - connected
to some type of cancer.
So, it seems that artificial intelligence
is already replacing humans when
it comes to detecting cancer -
and doing a better job of it.
But Daniel Susskind isn't convinced.
One reason is that AI systems still
need humans to programme them -
and as it turns out, knowing
exactly how doctors detect
illness remains something
of a mystery.
Here's Daniel Susskind again in
conversation with BBC World
Service programme, The Big Idea:
If you ask a doctor how it is they
make a diagnosis, they might be
able to point you to particularly
revealing parts of a reference book
or give you a few rules of thumb,
but ultimately they'd struggle
they'd say again it requires things
like creativity and judgment, and these
things are very difficult to articulate -
and so traditionally it's been thought
very hard to automate - if a human
being can't explain how they do
these special things, where on
earth do we begin in writing
instructions for a machine to follow?
Most doctors find it difficult to
explain how they make a diagnosis -
their judgement about what
someone's particular sickness is,
made by examining them.
Diagnosing someone's illness is
complicated but there are
some rules of thumb. A rule of
thumb is a practical but
approximate way of doing something.
For example, when cooking, a good
rule of thumb is two portions of
water to one portion of rice.
Exactly. And because identifying
sickness is so difficult, Daniel
says 'where on earth do we begin
writing instructions for a machine?'
We use phrases like where,
how or what on earth to
show feelings like anger,
surprise or disbelief.
I might show surprise by asking
Sam, how on earth did you
know the answer to that?
Ha ha! I guess you're talking
about your quiz question, Neil?
And you needn't be so
surprised - I'm naturally brainy!
Of course you are. In my quiz
question I asked Sam how
much skin there is on
an adult human body.
And I said it was
a) 2 square metres.
Which was the correct answer!
With your brains I think you'd
make a good doctor, Sam, and I'm
sure you'd have a good
bedside manner too.
You mean, the kind and caring
way that doctors and nurses
treat their patients. OK, let's
recap the rest of the vocabulary,
starting with freckle - a small brown
spot on someone's skin.
Freckles are usually harmless, but
some skin spots can be cancerous -
connected to cancer.
A doctor's diagnosis is their
judgement about what someone's
particular sickness or disease is.
A rule of thumb is a useful but
approximate way of doing or
measuring something.
And finally, we use phrases like
where on earth..? as a way to
show emotions like anger,
surprise or disbelief.
That's all for this programme
but join us for the next edition of
6 Minute English when we'll
discuss another trending topic
and the related vocabulary.
Why on earth would you
miss it? Goodbye for now!
Goodbye!