AIs will make health care safer and better

When people set goals which are sky-high to the point of silliness, the sensible scoff. They are normally right to do so. Sometimes, though, it is worth entertaining the possibility that even the most startling aspiration might be achievable.

In 2015 Priscilla Chan, a paediatrician, and her husband Mark Zuckerberg, a founder of Facebook, set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) with the aim of helping science bring about a world in which all disease could be prevented, cured or managed. Unsurprisingly there was a tech-centric feeling to the undertaking. But it was not until 2020 that the Chan-Zuckerberg’s annual updates started to talk about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). Four years later it is hard to imagine anyone pursuing their goals not putting it front and centre.