NVIDIA and Medtronic collaborate to develop an AI-enhanced endoscopy tool

NVIDIA is stepping up its use of AI to battle cancer. The GPU manufacturer and Medtronic are collaborating to include AI into the GI Genius endoscopic equipment. (shown below). To aid with the detection of the polyps that might result in colorectal cancer, the two will combine NVIDIA’s IGX hardware and the Holoscan medical platform. According to the firms, doctors will receive “AI-enhanced” diagnostic images.

Later this year, the first GI Genius systems made using NVIDIA technology are anticipated. Medtronic is banking that leveraging NVIDIA’s Clara platform would make it easier to create algorithms for real-time medical treatments. The device can leverage a variety of AI technologies.

The announcement coincides with NVIDIA’s expansion of its BioNeMo Cloud service, which aids in generative AI’s application to drug discovery. The new service aids in the development of AI models (and handles inference) that are used to create novel therapeutic proteins and advance disciplines like biology and chemistry. According to NVIDIA, scientists can speed up one of the laborious steps in their pipeline.

The information was released shortly after Google debuted AI technologies for ultrasound diagnostics and cancer treatment. In recent years, several tech behemoths have focused more of their AI research on the medical field. Microsoft sought to speed up cervical cancer detection and relieve some of the strain from overworked doctors, while Intel collaborated with Penn Medicine on AI to detect brain tumours.

This is an opportunity for NVIDIA to expand its customer base while also applying its AI capabilities to the field of health technology. However, the alliance may have some extremely useful advantages. This could assist doctors in starting therapy early and raising the likelihood of recovery, similar to certain existing AI-based cancer detection methods.