In terms of health, artificial intelligence techniques are often cited positively, with the hope of aiding diagnosis by reading images, predicting risks or accelerating the discovery of drug candidates. But in the short term, it is rather a danger, as a “Letter to the editors” of the newspaper warns. Diagnostic and interventional images, published on October 5.
A bit by chance, one of the authors, Augustin Lecler, professor at the University Paris-Cité and radiologist at the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation hospital, discovered that it was possible to modify brain MRIs with a cutting-edge smartphone. , Samsung –from S23–, iPhone –beyond 16–, or Google Pixels –over 8. In his office, putting his words into words, he photographs an MRI on the fly on his screen. On his smartphone on which this photo is displayed, he circles a tumor with his finger and makes it disappear in a beautiful fireworks display.
Then, conversely, when remembering this tumor “spot,” it pastes it in a few seconds on the MRI of a healthy patient. “The first time I did it quickly and I was already amazed. “Then I pulled MRI images from our information system, put them on my phone and converted them back to the correct format.”summarizes Augustin Lecler, who is also at the origin of one of the first scientific articles written by ChatGPT, in February 2023. It was dedicated to the benefits and limits of the use… of ChatGPT in radiology.
embellish items
In his brief letter, the specialist shows four examples of manipulated images, including metastases smaller than a finger. “Image manipulation in medicine is not new. In the 70s, doctors retouched photographs to invent pathologies”remembers Agustín Lecler. Pre-AI software, Gimp or Photoshop, also allows you to crop, delete, and add image fragments. But there, “Anyone can create fake X-ray images, without the need for technical knowledge, using modern smartphones.” [et] using generative artificial intelligence”write the authors of the article. “Watermarks,” which are sometimes added to indicate that the image is fake, are not foolproof security.
But for what? The radiologist does not want to give bad ideas, but, inevitably, we think about adorning scientific articles, or even clinical trials, with manipulated images. Or modify medical records to hide a pathology, for a credit file, or to exaggerate the effect of an accident (for a lawsuit), although this also implies complicity on the part of the medical profession. Addressing the integrity of hospital data may also be considered.
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