Artificial intelligence (AI) in biomedical research: discussion on authors' declaration of AI in their articles title.

Journal: European radiology experimental
Published Date:

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its different approaches, from machine learning to deep learning, are not new. We discuss here about the declaration of AI in the title of those articles dealing with AI. From 1990 to 2021, while AI articles in the PubMed increased from 300 to 59,596, the percentage declaring AI in the title describes a U-like-shaped curve: about 30% in early 1990s, less than 13% in 2005-2014, again 30% in 2020-2021. A similar trend was observed for AI in medical imaging. While the initial decline could be due to the establishment of AI methods, the recent increase could be related to the capacity of AI to outperform humans, especially in image recognition, fuelled by the adoption of graphic processing units for general purpose computing. The recent increase may also be due to the relevance of open issues about AI, including the standardisation of methods, explainability of results, and concerns about AI-induced epoch-making transformations: to say "We are using AI" in the title may also reflect these concerns.

Authors

  • Francesco Sardanelli
    1 Unit of Radiology, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Policlinico San Donato, Via Morandi 30, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milan, Italy.
  • Isabella Castiglioni
  • Anna Colarieti
    Clinical and Experimental Radiology Unit, Experimental Imaging Center, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
  • Simone Schiaffino
    Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland (IIMSI), Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), Lugano, Switzerland.
  • Giovanni Di Leo
    Unit of Radiology, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Via Rodolfo Morandi 30, 20097 San Donato Milanese, Italy. Electronic address: gianni.dileo77@gmail.com.