YONGIN: When five-year-old goldendoodle Mozzi started walking “unnaturally”, his concerned owner rushed him to the vet in South Korea, where the problem was diagnosed not by humans but by AI.
South Korea, a global leader in the production of chips that power generative AI, has been quick to embrace novel uses of the technology.
One such application, “X Caliber”, is helping vets pinpoint X-ray abnormalities in seconds, making diagnostics both quicker and easier to explain.
The AI reading of Mozzi’s X-rays showed the curly-haired goldendoodle had a 22 per cent chance of knee dislocation. While not an emergency, his condition needed careful management to head off surgery.
“I wouldn’t have understood the results if I didn’t look at the numbers,” said Mo Jae-hyun, Mozzi’s owner, adding that the AI program helped him understand his pet’s woes.
“Of course, I trust my vet, but looking at the results myself, it seems more credible.”
The software developer, South Korean telecom provider SK Telecom, said X Caliber has a disease detection rate of up to 86 per cent.
Vets say it has transformed their ability to diagnose.
“Dogs with heart disease, for example, tend to have enlarged hearts. We use a method called VHS (vertebral heart size), which used to require measuring one by one, manually,” Oh I-se, CEO of Sky Animal Medical Group, told AFP.
But now AI can reveal the result in 15 seconds, so it is “much more convenient”, Oh said.
