How can a region’s history of famines affect how people produce insulin in their pancreas? Or how can human physiology suited to a certain geography lose its edge due to lifestyle changes? Artificial Intelligence is a crucial link across such questions. When a large volume of unstructured data needs analysis, AI’s pattern-recognition capability can make a huge difference, quickly enabling well-tailored strategies to address complex challenges.
The inevitability of a future tied to AI also did not escape mention in Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech on Saturday. There are broad strands of approaches to AI in leading economies. The AI labs in the US seem enthused by proprietary models pursuing super intelligence. China with its ‘AI Plus initiative’ is focussed on open-weight models geared towards diffusion. Interrogate the internet and there are examples galore of robots being deployed in manufacturing strengthening endeavours to upgrade industries in China. Where can India find the biggest bang for every rupee spent? IndiaAI Mission Identifies 762 AI Use Cases Across 62 Ministries.
A good starting point could be healthcare.
Nachiket Mor, economist, former banker and a veteran in the study of health systems, finds numerous use cases in healthcare. In his research, he uses AI to rapidly identify patterns and develop hypotheses that can be tested on the ground. For example, while looking at the population in Himachal Pradesh, using AI tools, he finds an association between immigration trends into the region and dietary changes and health patterns over 70,000 years. This spans from the time of the Mundas, the original inhabitants of the hills there, right through the arrival of the Aryans, the emergence of the Tibeto-Burman communities in the state’s remote northern and eastern districts, and the linkages and influences resulting from settlers from the Indus Valley civilisation. He has found associations in other states, such as Chhattisgarh, where, because of its location away from the sea, between the salt-conserving physiology of the tribals who migrated there centuries ago and their high hypertension and stroke rates. He finds that West Bengal’s curiously high diabetes rates and relatively low hypertension rates could similarly be driven by beta cell damage associated with its famine history.
In public health, Machine Learning (a sub-branch of AI) algorithms are now actively being used to track ongoing public health challenges and devise solutions. India, with our network of satellites, is well placed to implement these solutions to, at least partially, compensate for our lack of ground-level surveillance machinery.
There are also emerging trends that could redesign healthcare. Dr B S Ajaikumar, leading oncologist, founder and chairman of HealthCare Global Enterprises sees immense value in the potential of AI when fed with right data to study patterns and evolve focussed strategies to treatment. Be it the triggers to head and neck cancers in North East India versus cases of colon and breast cancers triggered by lifestyle chances in affluent societies of the big cities of India, which are also combating the impact of environmental pollution. Dr Ajaikumar is also seeing the emergence of repurposed medicines. A case in point, according to him, is the broader application of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a gut hormone. It started out treating diabetes but now is also sought for heart disease, kidney disease and other ailments. Hopes are now hinged on other peptides, like the orexins to hopefully help treat brain-related ailments.
An emerging area in Nachiket Mor’s work is the cultural evolution of Health. Here, he is seeking to explore the use of AI to analyse thousands of written, audio, and video records to identify opportunities for culturally sensitive interventions that preserve beneficial practices and alter those that may be inconsistent with today’s environment.