Hearing Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fundamental building block of many new technologies. In the wild, many AI algorithms are designed to operate autonomously. But to communicate with humans, they need to perceptualize what they know.

The purpose of this image is to let the reader know that this is about skin cancer diagnosis by showing a doctor examining a suspicious region of skin.
A dermatologist examines a suspicious skin growth. With AI, they can get a better idea of whether it is dangerous or not.

One of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on was designing an AI sonification system to help doctors with melanoma diagnosis. A dermatologist snaps a photo of a suspicious region of skin, triggering analysis by a computer vision system trained to detect skin cancer. The doctor gets a read out of the results and a brief sonic summary. If it the sound is scary, alarming or ugly… it’s probably coming off.

Hear samples of images classified as malignant and benign. Siren-like frequency modulation are causes for alarm.

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