Autism, which is a complex varied disease and is also one of the difficult diseases to be diagnosed even by experts. And even when they spot the signs, it still takes lots of time.
Families must sometimes visit the nearest autism clinic for several face-to-face appointments. Not everyone has easy access to these clinics, and people may wait months for an appointment as well.
According to some of the researchers and scientist, it has been said that delays in autism diagnosis could shrink with the rise of machine learning—a technology which is developed as part of AI research.
Moreover, they are pinning their hopes on the latest version of machine learning, which is merely known as deep learning.
“Machine learning was always a part of the field,” Styner says which is a Cambridge scientist, “but the methods and applications were never strong enough actually to have a clinical impact; that changed with the onset of deep learning.” “Across the spectrum,” he continues,“the potential is enormous.”
To make accurate predictions, machine-learning algorithms almost need vast amounts of data with training. George Abowd is a scientist with two Children who suffer from autism. “My oldest is a non-speaking individual, and my younger one speaks but has difficulty with communicating effectively,” Abowd says. “I started to get interested in what I could do as a computer scientist to address any of the challenges related to autism.” He added.
“Of course, we will see a lot of advances. We will also see a lot of snake oil,” Shic, co-investigator on a project that has developed a tablet-based app called the Yale Adaptive Multimedia Screener, says. “So we’ve got to be vigilant and suspicious and critical like we’ve been about everything that comes up; just because it’s couched in mathematics doesn’t mean it’s more real.”
