[ad_1]
Author: HIEUN SHIN
When five-year-old golden retriever Mozzi began walking “unnaturally,” his concerned owner rushed him to a vet in South Korea who diagnosed the problem not with a human, but with artificial intelligence.
South Korea, a global leader in producing generative AI chips, has quickly embraced new uses for the technology. One application, “X Caliber,” is helping veterinarians identify abnormalities in X-rays in seconds, making diagnoses faster and easier to interpret.
Oh I-se, veterinarian and CEO of Sky Animal Medical Group, holds her golden retriever Mozzi before using the X Caliber software.
The AI’s reading of Mozzie’s X-rays showed the curly-haired golden retriever had a 22 percent chance of dislocating his knee. While not an emergency, his condition needed to be managed carefully to avoid surgery.
“If I didn’t look at the numbers, I wouldn’t understand the results,” said Mozzi’s owner, Mo Jae-hyun, adding that the AI program helped him understand his pet’s plight. “Of course, I trust my veterinarian, but seeing the results in person, it seems more credible.”
South Korean telecom provider SK Telecom, which developed the software, said X Caliber has a disease detection rate of up to 86%.
Veterinarians say it has transformed their ability to diagnose.
“For example, dogs with heart disease tend to have enlarged hearts. We use a method called VHS (vertebral heart size), which used to require manual measurement one by one,” said Oh I-se, CEO of Sky Animal Medical Group. But now AI can display results within 15 seconds, so it’s “much more convenient,” Oh said.
SK Telecom considers X Caliber to be “the beginning of AI healthcare,” said Joo Ye-seul, manager of the software’s global team. “We plan to build on this and expand into other areas.”
The service is already available in the United States, Australia and some Southeast Asian countries. In Indonesia, veterinary hospital owner Kristanya Oen said X Caliber is helping to address a lack of expertise and trained staff.
“There is a shortage of radiologists in animal hospitals in Indonesia, and it is not easy to get radiology education in Indonesia, so we need the X Caliber to help us with diagnosis,” said Oen.
Oh I-se, veterinarian and CEO of Sky Animal Medical Group, and an assistant review an X-ray of Mozzi, a golden retriever, before using the “X Caliber” software
SK Telecom is part of the same conglomerate as SK Hynix, which has launched the first high-bandwidth memory chips — a cutting-edge semiconductor that enables faster data processing and more complex generative AI tasks.
Although many experts have questioned the returns of massive AI investments following the recent fall in tech stocks, the conglomerate’s Chief Executive Chey Tae-won remains steadfast.
This month, he told employees that SK Group must “think seriously about next-generation products.” In June, SK Group announced plans to invest 80 trillion won ($60 billion) in AI chips, services and data centers.
In South Korea, where more and more people are choosing to “have pets” rather than have children, it’s no surprise that AI healthcare is starting with animals.
In a country with the world’s lowest birth rate, pet ownership has roughly doubled over the past decade, official data show. One in four households now owns at least one pet, and sales of pet strollers surpassed those of baby strollers on popular e-commerce platform Gmarket last year.
The pet care industry is estimated to be worth 8 trillion won ($6 billion) in 2022, a fourfold increase from five years ago. The government aims to double the value of the industry by 2027 and is helping to support pet food and healthcare businesses through various loans and tax incentives.
Following the trend, South Korean companies are researching new ways to incorporate AI into pet care, including a “smart toilet” for early detection of urinary tract diseases and a “smart leash” that monitors pulse and body temperature.
“It is expected that devices that can monitor mild to severe diseases in pets’ daily lives will become popular,” said Kim Soo-kyung, senior manager at KPMG Economic Research Institute in Korea.
[ad_2]
Source link
