Your Selfie Could Soon Sit in Your Medical Record as AI Learns to Predict Cancer Survival

Researchers say an AI model trained on more than 40 million face photos can estimate a cancer patient’s risk of dying from a single image (Credit: Magnific)

A single photograph of a cancer patient's face can help predict their risk of dying, according to researchers at Mass General Brigham in Boston. They say the AI tool is not yet ready for the clinic.

Their study, published on Monday 19 October in The Lancet Digital Health, describes what the team says is the first AI algorithm that can directly predict cancer survival from a face photograph. 'To our knowledge, this is the first report of an AI algorithm that can directly predict cancer patient survival from a simple face photograph,' the researchers wrote.