Skip to Content
Artificial intelligence

AI Could Diagnose Your Heart Attack on the Phone—Even If You’re Not the Caller

January 12, 2018

An AI that listens in on 911 calls in Denmark will diagnose heart attacks, from voices and other background sounds, better than dispatchers can.

How it works: When someone calls for an ambulance in Copenhagen, an AI assistant called Corti will be listening in. Using sound-recognition software, it will analyze words and background noises—like a victim’s unusual breathing, even if that person is not the caller—to alert a dispatcher if it believes a heart attack is in progress.

Better than humans: As Fast Company points out, Danish dispatchers can recognize a heart attack over the phone about 73 percent of the time. An early study on Corti suggest the AI can spot one 95 percent of the time.

AI’s other diagnosis tricks: Machine-learning algorithms are helping doctors spot other medical issues early and more accurately too—from using voice analysis in diagnosing PTSD to identifying candidates for palliative care.

Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Providing the right products at the right time with machine learning

Amid shifting customer needs, CPG enterprises look to machine learning to bolster their data strategy, says global head of MLOps and platforms at Kraft Heinz Company, Jorge Balestra.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.