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Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

economist.com

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Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#141

Post by throwawaylinux »

Gehlitio wrote: post #119
throwawaylinux wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are still plenty of expensive threatments like cancer were the diagnosis is also costly just due to the tech used. > A proper MRI is expensive, the analysis is slow and need experts etc. I'm sure that's very true. A company that's struggles to keep a rudimentary chat app running for any length of time, spectacularly miscalculated its fiber project, to name a few obvious ones, does not instill any confidence t…

Are we talking about the same company? Google maps was and still is free, available and changed lives. GCP is extremely innovative. From full end to end encryption including encryption on rest. Google workspace works like a charm. They have well working ML in all newer pixel phones for images etc. They have tons of bleeding edge research papers on so many different ml topics (are you aware of their research blog?) Go…

> Are we talking about the same company?

Yes.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#142

Post by monetus »

cupofpython wrote: post #130
Gehlitio wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checkout their last Google Io. They know how they make their money and don't hide it. But they make you as an individual disappear. It's a much better compromise than from any other company and they drive this topic for years.

you dont disappear. you become embedded. they are metaphorically assigning you a number and stripping you of an identity. It is dehumanizing. At the end of the day, it's just you by a different name. Instead of owning it and claiming "we have this information on Gehlitio" they say things like "We have these generalizations about anybody who happens to use HN, speaks in English, bought X Y and Z, subscribes to A, "

I wonder how this will play out in court when a neural net that underpins the tech of a company also can't properly handle health data. Start over?

The right to be forgotten would have to be built into it all right from the get go, wouldn't it? Neural nets embed things, like you said. If Facebook pivoted towards being a hub for healthcare data as oracle seems want to do, could they use all of their facial recognition tech trained from profile pictures now that it is supposed to be detached from any one identity? I'm thinking of the equivalent of github's co-pilot spitting out comments alongside the code.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#143

Post by 908B64B197 »

philistine wrote: post #134

I don’t understand these drives. The US is the only developed country without state control of healthcare. How is Google hoping to grow their market outside the US when it’s such a difficult space to navigate?

> How is Google hoping to grow their market outside the US when it’s such a difficult space to navigate?

That just means that for a given region there's only one buyer to deal with.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#145

Post by ciphol »

Gehlitio wrote: post #91
GoOnThenDoTell wrote: post #21

Please no. They have too much info on everyone already

Do you life with something chronic? Something were not a lot of people are doing research and we're there was no real discovery in the last 20 years? Because I do and you know how scattered the field of medicine is? There is one realistic way of getting more people with chronic issues new threatments and it's data. Lots and lots of it. IF someone can pull that of while protecting the individuals I believe it's alphab…

That's the possible upside. The possible downside is "if you ever search for a disease in Chrome, or on your Android device, or at google.com, we will notify your insurance company who will raise your rates".

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#146

Post by actuator »

nightski wrote: post #133

I really wish Google would just accept it's a dumb advertising company and forget about these moonshots. It's just to stroke the founders ego. They are big enough. Pay out a huge dividend or something.

Completely disagree.

There is huge scope in healthcare for automation, pre-emptive diagnosis and raising the bar for precision.

It is mostly going to be done by a company with good AI chops, I would put my money on Google, from what I have heard about their efforts.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#147

Post by [deleted] »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #138
nightski wrote: post #133

I really wish Google would just accept it's a dumb advertising company and forget about these moonshots. It's just to stroke the founders ego. They are big enough. Pay out a huge dividend or something.

I know right? I wish they would just focus on making money instead of making products people might use and gain benefit from.

[deleted]

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#148

Post by nightski »

actuator wrote: post #146
nightski wrote: post #133

I really wish Google would just accept it's a dumb advertising company and forget about these moonshots. It's just to stroke the founders ego. They are big enough. Pay out a huge dividend or something.

Completely disagree. There is huge scope in healthcare for automation, pre-emptive diagnosis and raising the bar for precision. It is mostly going to be done by a company with good AI chops, I would put my money on Google, from what I have heard about their efforts.

Google often has terrible execution when it lies outside their direct core businesses. You are correct they have amazing engineering talent, but that is not the problem here.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#149

Post by lotsofpulp »

ciphol wrote: post #145
Gehlitio wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you life with something chronic? Something were not a lot of people are doing research and we're there was no real discovery in the last 20 years? Because I do and you know how scattered the field of medicine is? There is one realistic way of getting more people with chronic issues new threatments and it's data. Lots and lots of it. IF someone can pull that of while protecting the individuals I believe it's alphab…

That's the possible upside. The possible downside is "if you ever search for a disease in Chrome, or on your Android device, or at google.com, we will notify your insurance company who will raise your rates".

If the goal is to have society subsidize a subgroup, then either government funding or laws requiring the exclusion of the subsidized criteria for purposes of insurance pricing are the better method. Like ACA did.

Re: Alphabet is spending billions to become a force in health care

#150

Post by edmundsauto »

ciphol wrote: post #145
Gehlitio wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you life with something chronic? Something were not a lot of people are doing research and we're there was no real discovery in the last 20 years? Because I do and you know how scattered the field of medicine is? There is one realistic way of getting more people with chronic issues new threatments and it's data. Lots and lots of it. IF someone can pull that of while protecting the individuals I believe it's alphab…

That's the possible upside. The possible downside is "if you ever search for a disease in Chrome, or on your Android device, or at google.com, we will notify your insurance company who will raise your rates".

So higher insurance rates versus getting better research into life saving treatments? When you put it that way…
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