Latest news with #Horvitz
Time of India
13-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
How AI is reshaping the doctor's role
Digestive Disease Week (DDW) held in San Diego, California During Digestive Disease Week (DDW) held in San Diego, California and attended by more than 12,000 physicians, Dr. Prateek Sharma, President of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), and Dr. Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft, explored the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. Their conversation highlighted how AI is shaping patient care, improving efficiency in the physician's office, and redefining the role of the clinician. Both their fireside chat and individual lectures at the Presidential Plenary Session drew a large and engaged audience, which reflects the increased interest of integrating AI in healthcare. ASGE president Prateek Sharma and Microsoft leader Eric Horvitz discuss the impact of AI in healthcare Dr. Sharma shared real-world examples of how AI is already transforming gastroenterology, from computer-aided detection (CADe) and diagnosis (CADx) in endoscopy to workflow optimisation and predictive modelling. He emphasised that the speciality is entering a point where AI reduces documentation burden, scheduling tools improve clinic flow, and how digital twins may one day enable real-time coaching during procedures. Dr. Horvitz, who leads Microsoft's health and AI initiatives, discussed broader trends in the field, highlighting AI's growing role in early disease detection and clinical decision support. He emphasised that AI systems should assist rather than replace human intelligence, serving as tools that support, not override, clinical judgment. Both speakers underscored the importance of thoughtful, clinically grounded progress. He also touched on the need for explainable AI, stating that systems must be transparent and trustworthy if they are to be safely adopted into practice. Both speakers acknowledged that as AI capabilities accelerate, so do challenges facing their integration into clinical practice. Dr. Sharma emphasis ed the importance of clinical validation, integration across platforms, and policy reform. Dr. Horvitz echoed his concerns, along with the need for ethical guardrails that evolve alongside the technology. Dr. Sharma emphasized that tomorrow's clinicians must be fluent in AI. 'AI won't replace you, but a gastroenterologist who knows how to use AI might', he said. Both leaders agreed that training must include interdisciplinary learning to responsibly evaluate and deploy AI tools. Dr. Horvitz added that doctors must be involved from day one in AI development to ensure these tools are clinically relevant and usable for patient needs. As AI continues to advance, both speakers underscored the importance of thoughtful, clinically grounded progress. They encouraged healthcare professionals to stay informed, engage with new technologies, and contribute their perspectives to ensure AI evolves in ways that serve patients, providers, and the healthcare system. The conversation made clear that shaping the future of AI in medicine is not just a technical challenge, but a clinical responsibility.
Time Magazine
08-05-2025
- Science
- Time Magazine
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun
When Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun first met in the lab of Robert Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, none of them could have known that each would go on to earn a Nobel Prize. Horvitz's came first in 2002, for discovering the genes that instruct organs how to develop, and in 2024, Ambros and Ruvkun together earned the Prize for discovering microRNA—work that began in Horvitz's lab. Both were fascinated with how a single cell, a fertilized egg, turns into the complex organisms that define the entire plant and animal kingdoms. Their discoveries came from the humble worm—specifically, a genetic aberration that prevented the worm from developing past a juvenile state. The culprit, they found, was an unusually small snippet of RNA, which they called microRNA (miRNA). These tiny pieces of RNA worked like a 'knob to turn up or down to get more or less protein,' says Ambros. That's similar but not identical to the mRNA that most people are familiar with from their role in the COVID-19 vaccines. miRNA, they found, works in parallel to mRNA as an additional layer of control that cells have over which genes are turned on or off, and at what levels. At first, they thought miRNAs might be unique to the worm. But they found them throughout animal and plant species. It turns out that this system helps complex organisms create and refine specialized cells. 'The idea is that by having various layers of control [over genes], you now have a much broader repertoire, like an orchestra,' Ruvkun says. MiRNAs mean 'the difference between one instrument vs. the whole orchestra.' The potential of their discovery is tremendous. With greater knowledge about how genes are controlled throughout development, researchers can start to think about modifying those instructions to address processes that go awry in disease, or even improve agricultural yield or address pests. Others have since discovered dozens of miRNAs in the worm, plants, and humans. 'There was a chance that this little worm might have been doing something so weird,' says Ruvkun. 'Fortunately for us, that wasn't the case.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
First Friday: enjoy deals, events, music and more
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — With a new month, new deals and events in downtown Dayton as First Friday is upon us once again. Today will see your favorite Dayton businesses offering special deals. From 5 to 10 p.m., businesses will offer said deals, live entertainment and much more. Of course, those aged 21 years or older are welcome to order a drink within downtown's Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area. Here are a few things happening today: The Black Box Improv – Shows from the Friday House Team's 'Grandpa's Scream Jar' and a First Friday Musical. Blind Bob's – Music from Lay Low, Houseghost, Sheller, and Leaving off Must be 21 or older to attend. Music begins at 8 p.m. and entry costs $10. Dayton Art Institute -Exhibitions available to enjoy include 'Captivating Clay: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Horvitz Collection,' 'The Need for Beauty,' 'Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled,' 'A Taste for Pop: Gifts from S. Bradley Gillaugh,' and 'Kind of Funny.' Available until 5 p.m. today. Dublin Pub – Enjoy Juke Box Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. It's free. Then there's a Miami Valley Pipes & Drums performance at 7 p.m. (as part of Irish First Fridays) and additional music at 9 p.m. Edward A. Dixon Gallery – Extended hours for the First Friday Art Hop. Front Street – Look around at the art studios, shops, and galleries across the campus. K12 Gallery & TEJAS – Happy Hour Paint In for those 21 and over. There will be 2 sessions from 4 to 6 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. Each session costs $30. THE NEON – Playing 'Sinners,' 'The Luckiest Man in America,' 'The Ballad of Wallis Island,' and 'Conclave.' Oregon Express – A unique take on Candy land will be available to play. Doors open at 8 p.m., music begins at 9 p.m. Costs $10 at the door. Sinclair Community College, Building 13 – Artwork from graduating Sinclair students on display. These are free to see from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Toxic Brew Company – New paintings on display in the taproom during the 'Uno Mas' beer tapping. Yellow Cab Tavern – Playing Knock for Six, Toxic Nobility, Stump, and Rind live! Cover at 8:30p, music at 9p. Click here for more information about the special deals. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Festooned with LACMA rubble, 7th Ave Garden is L.A.'s most unlikely arts oasis
The work of L.A.-based conceptual artist David Horvitz has never been easy to categorize. For the last two decades he's worked across media, from video to sculpture to found materials. His latest project, 7th Ave Garden, also defies easy categorization. On a vacant lot in Arlington Heights, he's created a small but verdant oasis that hosts exhibitions, poetry readings and performances. On a formerly fallow lot off Washington Boulevard where a house had burned down, Horvitz has worked with landscape architecture firm Terremoto to build a secret garden that also acts as a living ecological lab and art project. Horvitz has a handshake deal with the property owner, who gave him permission to build a garden with the knowledge that the lot could be developed or sold in the future. Undeterred by its potential ephemerality, Horvitz began planning the garden. When friends questioned the wisdom of planting a garden that may be destroyed to make way for real estate development, Horvitz brushed concerns aside. 'If I have [the garden] in five years, this tree will be five years older and it'll be 25 feet tall, right? But if I hesitate, then nothing will happen. It's a very hopeful act,' Horvitz says. Terremoto senior project manager Kasey Toomey, who worked on the garden, considers the site's temporariness part of its appeal. 'It forces you to be actively present in the moment. You have to enjoy it while it's there,' he explains. Work on the garden started at the same time as demolition of Los Angeles County Museum of Art buildings for its new Peter Zumthor-designed campus, creating an opportunity to use the rubble of the museum to create a new artwork. Tipped off by art world connections, Horvitz collected concrete detritus to serve as garden hardscape. Other found materials include pieces of flat concrete pulled from Ballona Creek to make a walkway, rubble from the site of the former South Central Farm, and sand from the historically Black-owned oceanfront site of Bruce's Beach in the South Bay. Some of the shells peppered throughout the garden come from Horvitz's beachcombing excursions, others are from oyster tasting parties held in the garden, but most were collected from local restaurants such as Michelin-starred Mexican seafood restaurant Holbox in South L.A.'s Mercado de Paloma. The shells serve a dual purpose — one that is functional, as they decompose to improve the soil quality, and another formal, reflecting moonlight in the evening. Horvitz is acutely aware the garden has a dual existence. 'There are two gardens here,' he explains. 'There's the garden that has plants and there's the garden that's my artwork. It has a different way to articulate and discuss it.' Working with Terremoto's team, Horvitz planted about 100 native plants, including elderberry, sage, brittlebrush and manzanitas. The heavy rains of the last few winters helped nurture scattered wildflower seeds, creating a dazzling burst of flowers in the spring that attracts butterflies and bees to the vivid petals. Horvitz also left some of the original inhabitants of the garden intact, including a rose bush, juniper and four o'clocks. Plumeria cuttings from his grandmother's house in the neighborhood were also added to the plot. The design of the garden isn't the result of a formal process and plan. Rather, it was built intuitively on site. 'It emerged rather than was pre-designed,' explains Terremoto principal David Godshall. After purchasing the native plants, Horvitz and the team at Terremoto hosted a plant layout day guided mostly by instinct. 'Our design intent was to not make a plan,' Godshall says. A wooden platform and benches in the center of the garden serve as a focal point for performances and events. Horvitz invites other friends, artists and curators to produce exhibits, events and readings and collaborate with him, taking a relaxed approach to programming: He intentionally keeps the garden's programming relatively casual and free form. There is no official website or newsletter or Instagram handle for the garden. 'What I don't want to have happen is this to become a full-time job and become professionalized,' Horvitz insists. Instead, Horvitz relies primarily on word of mouth for events, and will sometimes post to his personal Instagram a day or two before an event. He recently hosted a March 30 book launch party for 'The World's Largest Cherry Pie,' a collection of poetry by his friend Sophie Appel, that featured a harpist and tea tasting. And on Saturday at 4 p.m., there will be a reading of Cecilia Vicũna's poetry at the garden. While the garden is rooted in local culture, built bit by bit from the flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles locations and plants native to the ecology, the programming is more global in approach. Interdisciplinary artists Martine Syms and Sophia Cleary partnered on a poetry reading in the garden. L.A.-based public arts nonprofit Active Cultures hosted a traditional Chinese tea service and cooked mushrooms in a ground oven for a community barbecue with artists Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez and Shanhuan Manton. Dance company Volta Collective has choreographed and performed in the garden. During this year's Frieze Los Angeles art fair in February, Horvitz partnered with French contemporary art museum Frac Lorraine. The Frac Lorraine prominently features a garden as a living artwork at its location in Metz, France. Horvitz and Fanny Gonella, director of the Frac, collaborated on an exhibition that included work from the Frac Lorraine collection including Rosemary Mayer, Lotty Rosenfeld and Mario García Torres. The artwork is primarily conceptual and performance, avoiding some of the stickier issues of transport, storage and insurance most museum loans entail. While the Frac inhabited the 7th Ave Garden temporarily, Horvitz has contributed a more permanent artifact to the Frac's collection through his work 'Fleur de Corbeau.' The piece, a frangipani branch from his grandmother's former garden in the neighborhood, will be planted in the museum's garden, crossing temporal and spatial boundaries between the institution and the artist. The exhibit, titled 'Conversations With Ghosts,' included a mural reproducing a detail from a piece by Corita Kent currently in the Frac Lorraine collection. The bold black and yellow painted Kent aphorism on an adjacent wall, 'Hope Arouses as Nothing Else Can Arouse a Passion for the Possible,' still overlooks the garden, serving as a trenchant visual reminder of the garden's purpose.
