Opinions split over AI healthcare robot that debuted at the Cardano (ADA) Summit 🚨 This article is 3 years old...
Opinions split over AI healthcare robot that debuted at the Cardano (ADA) Summit
Grace the healthcare robot steals the Summit by giving a glimpse of where blockchain technology is headed.
2 min read
Updated: Sep. 28, 2021 at 7:27 am UTC
Photo by IOHK
As the first virtual world crypto event, the Cardano Summit, which finished on Sunday, promised much.
The keynote sessions are available for viewing now, with the rest of the content to be uploaded on the IOHK YouTube channel shortly.
Feedback indicated it was a well-organized event, and more importantly, it showcased key innovations and partnerships coming soon to the Cardano chain. Including the most eccentric reveal of all, an AI healthcare robot called Grace.
However, anyone who’s played Detroit: Become Human, or watched the Terminator films, would be forgiven for feeling uneasy about the idea of AI androids. Then again, is this distrust based on warrantless conjecture?
Key reveals at the Cardano Summit
The Cardano Foundation revealed several strategic partnerships to drive adoption and make full use of the chain’s smart contract capabilities. The Foundation’s CEO, Frederik Gregaard, said:
“Our new ecosystem partners cover a range of challenges and opportunities at the forefront of global society today, including climate change, NFTs, decentralized finance (DeFi), and digital identity, and they will play a pivotal role in helping us realize our vision.”
With that, in conjunction with Veritree, the Cardano chain will be used to secure tree planting records with a view to reforestation. Esports fans were pleased to hear about teaming up with Rival to develop an NFT platform. While collaborating with financial services firm UBX will “increase on-chain DeFi activity.”
The Summit also revealed a tie-in with Chainlink for “tamper-proof” smart contract oracle services.
But most intriguing of all was the unveiling of Grace, which will use Cardano as an information network to process cognitive functions.
The coming age of AI
Grace is an AI robot built by Hanson Robotics and SingularityNET. She is designed with healthcare in mind and can speak English and Korean.
“She can also measure people’s responsiveness and mirror their emotions, helping her not just to come up with diagnoses but also to respond empathetically.”
IOHK claims that operating on the Cardano chain provides Grace with the highest level of functionality in terms of processing biodata quicker, more securely, and at a lower cost.
The CEO of SingularityNET, Ben Goertzel, said the importance of physical and mental health was often overlooked pre-pandemic. But this technology can be used to meet such needs as we advance.
“This is why solutions like Grace are so important, to combat loneliness and ease the burden on frontline workers. And with Cardano’s market-leading capabilities, she will be able to scale to meet this global challenge.”
However, Grace is not yet at the stage of replacing human healthcare workers. Goertzel said they will enhance her capabilities in the coming years to serve more critical functions in elderly healthcare and medical settings.
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Samuel Wan
Samuel Wan, a finance professional turned full-time crypto content creator, values individual autonomy and personal freedom in his pursuits.
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Cardano is a decentralized public blockchain and cryptocurrency project and is fully open source.
Input Output
Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) is a research and development company committed to using the peer-to-peer innovations of blockchain to build accessible financial services for all.