Good morning.
No industry holds greater potential for the application of A.I. than health care. It generates massive of amounts of data that, if properly analyzed, could have enormous implications for health costs, health outcomes and human longevity.
And yet in no industry is the gap between potential and present reality greater.
How do we close that gap? That was the conversation at a small, off-the-record lunch I moderated yesterday before the start of Fortune‘s annual Brainstorm Health event. The participants included CEOs of some well-known health care companies and top executives from Intel. Their consensus: technology is not the problem here. Data security, data privacy, siloed data, dirty data, and cultural opposition to A.I. all pose bigger obstacles. Fixing those problems in order to unlock the potential of A.I. will not be done in two or three years. It will be a decades-long project.
Still, speakers on the conference main stage were optimistic about A.I.’s ability to transform health care. “We have made a lot of progress,” said IBM’s John Kelly, and there is much more to come. Health care A.I. may turn out to be the ultimate example of Amara’s law: We tend to overstate the effects of technology in the short run and underestimate the effects in the long run.
By the way, Kelly expressed the view of many in the group that A.I. isn’t going to replace the judgment of medical professionals. “It is always going to be human plus machines making the decisions.”
You can read more from Brainstorm Health here. More news below.
| Alan Murray | |
| @alansmurray | |
| alan.murray@fortune.com |
Top News
Boeing Probe 1
The preliminary findings in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash investigation reportedly show that the doomed pilots tried following Boeing's emergency procedures, including turning off the automated flight control system. However, they could not regain control of the plane. Wall Street Journal
Boeing Probe 2
Over to the Lion Air investigation, and Indonesian investigators have reportedly found that the faulty angle-of-attack sensor that was linked to the accident had been repaired in a Florida aircraft maintenance facility. There is no indication that the XTRA Aerospace repair station had anything to do with the sensor in the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max. Bloomberg
Brexit Twist
British Prime Minister Theresa May has for the first time indicated willingness to cross her "red lines." With Parliament unable to find a majority for any Brexit option, she now wants to reach a compromise with Jeremy Corbyn's opposition Labour Party that could win the support of most lawmakers. This will involve asking the EU for another short extension. If the cross-party talks fail, May said she will accept whatever Parliament agrees to do. So, chances of a no-deal Brexit just went down, and those of a "soft Brexit" (with the U.K. remaining in a customs union with the EU) and a second referendum just went up. Guardian
Uber Lobbying
Uber spent $2 million lobbying for congestion charges in New York, which will be introduced in a couple years' time. Ride-hailing firms are being blamed for increasing congestion, and Uber sees general congestion fees as preferable to limits on car numbers or new taxes on their services. Financial Times
Around the Water Cooler
Malware-a-Lago
A Chinese woman walked into President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday carrying a USB stick bearing malicious software, or malware. According to a criminal complaint, Yujing Zhang gave a misleading statement to the Secret Service by saying she was there for an event that did not exist. CNBC
Ghosn Announcement
Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn says he will hold a press conference on April 11, at which he will "tell the truth about what's happening." The announcement came via a newly-created Twitter account bearing the blue check mark of authenticity. Ghosn denies the various financial misconduct charges laid against him in Japan, and claims they are the result of a conspiracy against him. Bangkok Post
Fake News
Facebook's WhatsApp is taking a new tack in the fight against fake news in India, where elections are imminent—it's launching a helpline where users can check if the information or photos they have been sent are genuine or misleading. This isn't the first such fact-checking service to be established in India, but it is the first to be set up by WhatsApp itself. BBC
Panama Papers
The Danish tax authority is suing 34 companies from the country that were named in the Panama Papers tax avoidance scandal. It wants the taxes it was owed. Some of the companies can't pay up, so the Tax Agency is suing their management instead. It's considering suing another 50 companies, too. Reuters
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer. Find previous editions here, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here.
