An event brought together world-leading experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare as well as investors and startups active in the area.
Hosted by Joe White MBE (British Consul General in San Francisco and UK Tech Envoy) and leading entrepreneur and Imperial alumnus Wendy Tan White MBE, the event showcased some of Imperial's expertise in AI and frontier technologies.
Imperial's President, Professor Hugh Brady opened proceedings highlighting Imperial initiatives including I-X and the Data Science Institute which are carrying out the basic research to create safe and trusted AI, as well as applying AI to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges in health, sustainability and security.
Professor Brady emphasised Imperial's commitment to building scientific links and exploring opportunities to leverage the convening power of London and San Francisco ecosystems to develop and translate radical technologies and solutions linked to AI in healthcare and science.
Frontiers of AI in Healthcare
Professor Mary Ryan, Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise) then chaired a discussion on the frontiers of AI in healthcare and the commercialisation of technology, which involved Professor Aldo Faisal, Professor of AI and Neuroscience at Imperial; Dr Michael Howell, Chief Clinical Officer at Google; and Wendy Tan White; Imperial Computing alumnus and CEO of Intrinsic, a robotics software and AI company at Alphabet (Google's parent company).
Speaking at the event, Professor Ryan said: "At Imperial, AI is not a discipline that sits in Computer Science, it permeates everything that we do, from thinking about the regulatory issues through to application and how we use AI to really deliver societal benefits more quickly."
Professor Faisal talked about his role as founding Director of the £24million Imperial-based?UKRI?Centre for Doctoral Training in?AI?for?Healthcare.
Speaking at the event he said: "AI in healthcare is a really pressing need, because healthcare costs are escalating way beyond inflation rates.
"One of the wonderful things about the National Health Service in the UK is that, in principle, you have 65 million people and their data under central management. Over the years, Imperial has been leading various efforts to collect and integrate this data. At the moment, we're hosting the HDRUK Discover-NOW project that links 2.3 million healthcare records from primary and secondary care in one database that is accessible and analyzable, so we can really start thinking about doing experiments trying to find solutions."
The Valley perspective
Dr Michael Howell talked about his experience of practicing and teaching medicine as a pulmonary critical care doctor, before moving to Google to lead a team of clinical experts who focus on how technology, including AI, can help improve health.
"Healthcare today is undoubtedly the best the world has ever seen and we have almost unimaginable opportunities for improvement through the ability to democratise and scale expertise and the interesting thing about AI is this hope that we will be able to democratise expertise for people who need it when they need it."
Wendy Tan White shared her entrepreneurial journey starting from Imperial and going on to establish and scale innovative companies as well as her role in the Moonshot Factory (part of Alphabet), which aims to invent and launch 'moonshot' technologies to make the world a radically better place.
"I was brought across to the Valley to help run the moonshot factory for Google, which is basically a long-term innovation. The reason they wanted me to come across is that they wanted a different perspective than just the pure Valley perspective, because big-impact, global moonshots don't just affect the Valley, they affect the whole world. And that perspective is super important."
