Saint Vincent speakers share AI progress in aviation, medicine, warn of chatbot pitfalls
A Pittsburgh firm is harnessing artificial intelligence to make it easier for military aircraft to land on ships at sea. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, another company is working on a skin patch that automatically doses diabetic patients with insulin.
Presenters at a weekend AI conference at Saint Vincent College in Unity looked at the promise AI holds across multiple industries.
There also were words of caution about the technology’s limitations and the pitfalls it can pose for users.
“AI is used in a number of ways we’re developing,” said Alden Bushnell, senior business development manager for Near Earth Autonomy. The Pittsburgh-based firm has worked on a drone that autonomously delivers blood and medical supplies to medics in the field.
Another of the company’s projects is use of a camera-linked AI system to assist landings on ships.
“There are some reasons militarily why that’s important as opposed to using radar,” Bushnell said of such landings. “That can be dangerous not only to the aircraft, but to the ship itself, giving away its position.”
He said the AI system can recognize the deck of a ship and help in landing on a desired spot, even as the vessel may rock up and down on waves.
“You need to touch down exactly at the right time,” he said. “If you don’t, then catastrophic things can happen.”
While a rash of recent commercial airline crashes and near misses has caused concern, Bushnell argued that small private planes demand attention because of their lack of AI technology.
“Many if not most of the aircraft out there are from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s,” he said.
He said one way AI might enhance safety for the pilot of a small plane could be using map references to suggest the best spots for an emergency landing in the event of engine trouble.
“In an emergency situation, even an experienced aviator can quickly become overloaded,” Bushnell said. “Anything that we can do to make their job easier to get on the ground safely is good for all of us.”
Bushnell cautioned that an AI aviation system requires extensive preparation and a backup system before it’s used in flight.
“You have to have trained it ahead of time and tested it thoroughly,” he said. “It’s crucial that we put systems right alongside to ensure the output we’re getting from an AI-driven system is trustworthy. That check-and-balance is a fundamental we cannot go without in aviation.”
A tool for diabetics
Terrence Tormey, a consultant for Transdermal Specialties Global, said the Delaware County company has completed a phase 3 clinical trial of its insulin delivery device as it prepares to submit required information to the Food and Drug Administration.
“We’re only 60 patients away,” he said of that process.
The device, he said, was developed by an engineer and former NASA mission specialist who is diabetic.
“He was tired of giving himself insulin injections,” said Tormey, who also has diabetes. “It’s onerous,” which can lead to skipped doses.
With the Transdermal system, Tormey said, a diabetes sufferer enters his morning glucose level into a device roughly the size of a cellphone. It calculates the dosing of insulin required throughout the day, and the drug is delivered by a linked patch on the skin that uses ultrasound waves.
“The first ultrasound wave opens the pores large enough to receive the insulin,” he said. “The second one punches it into the bloodstream. There’s no sensation and no needle.”
Like many other diabetics, Tormey uses a separate continuous glucose monitoring device placed on his skin to track his glucose level.
He said a human is still needed for the step of entering the glucose reading into the insulin patch. A step further in AI technology would have the two devices communicate directly to each other.
“We decided to keep it so it’s not a complete loop,” he said. “There are too many opportunities for it to be interfered with by microwaves or broadcast media.”
On the other hand …
Some Saint Vincent instructors discussed the pros and cons of using AI technology in education.
Robert Markley, who teaches a management information systems course, requires students to use programming language commands to create tables, store data and retrieve information.
Once students began using AI tools like ChatGPT to help with the assignment, he said, “They spend less time struggling with technical errors and more time focusing on problem-solving and critical thinking.
“Exposure to AI tools helps students develop skills they will use in modern workplaces.”
But Justin Petrovich, who chairs Saint Vincent’s marketing, analytics and global commerce department, warned about the temptation of turning to AI tools too often and easily and using them as a crutch.
He also pointed to the risk of encountering “hallucinations” — when a chatbot creates text that is nonsensical or inaccurate.
“It can make up factually incorrect responses,” he said.
Pointing to a positive example of AI at work, Tormey cited an account by Dr. David Fajgenbaum, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and co-founder of research nonprofit Every Cure. Fajgenbaum recounted that the mother of a child with a rare disease “started entering his symptoms into ChatGPT, which gave a diagnosis for this patient. She took that information to a neurosurgeon who confirmed the correct diagnosis.”
On the other hand, Tormey pointed to a 2023 paper by a team of academics and researchers that revealed just 7% of 115 references appearing among 30 ChatGPT-generated medical papers were both authentic and accurate. The paper’s authors found that 47% of the references were fabricated.
Jeff Himler is a TribLive reporter covering Greater Latrobe, Ligonier Valley, Mt. Pleasant Area and Derry Area school districts and their communities. He also reports on transportation issues. A journalist for more than three decades, he enjoys delving into local history. He can be reached at jhimler@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.