(Bloomberg) — Watson, an artificial intelligence technology that IBM wants to sell to help doctors diagnose diseases, will largely escape the oversight of regulators if the computer giant wins a two-year Washington lobbying push.
International Business Machines Corp.'s argument to Congress is that its supercomputer, famed for victory on quiz show "Jeopardy!," isn't a medical device like a cardiac pacemaker and shouldn't need lengthy clinical trials to prove it's safe and effective. A draft bill released Tuesday backs that position, and could speed the use of Watson and other so- called decision support technologies.
The artificial intelligence technology already has medical fans. Eric Topol, a genomics professor at the Scripps Research Institute, has used Watson to find research subjects who have serious conditions never before identified. When Watson diagnoses someone — like it did with a patient with plastic lung, a rare condition that restricts airflow — Topol can scratch them off his list of candidates.
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