When you watch a movie or television show on Netflix, inevitably you will receive a bevy of suggestions from the streaming platform of programs you might enjoy based on what you just watched.
Well, the science behind the algorithm that decides what to suggest to you can potentially be used to help doctors cure cancer.
Netflix tracks our viewing histories and runs it through artificial intelligence to find patterns on how often certain types of programs are watched and we gave them a thumbs up or down. The AI then uses this data to generate personal recommendations.
Ludmil Alexandrov of UC San Diego, and co-author of this study, said per the New York Post, “Just as Netflix can predict which shows you’ll choose to binge watch next, we believe that we will be able to predict how your cancer is likely to behave, based on the changes its genome has previously experienced.”
According to Alexandrov, the medical AI will be looking through genetic data within cells for “faults” in the tumors, so exactly where the cancer starts and stops.
Co-author Nischalan Pillay said, “To stay one step ahead of cancer, we need to anticipate how it adapts and changes. Mutations are the key drivers of cancer, but a lot of our understanding is focused on changes to individual genes in cancer.”
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