SAN DIEGO — Students at the Salk Institute in La Jolla are using a deep-learning software called SLEAP to learn more about the development of some diseases. The software uses artificial intelligence to track and quantify body language in animals, humans and plants to find patterns that predict the progression of cancer and ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Salk fellow Talmo Pereira developed this software and is teaching San Diego students how to use it. He said his initial idea sparked from the computer-generated imagery in movies like 'Avatar' or 'Shrek'.
"I realized that if we apply the same approach to animals and other objects of study, that we can probably extract the essential element of motion that are necessary to describe how life itself moves," he said. "The difference between watching a human and guessing how they are moving and how they are feeling is that we use math and statistics. We have algorithms that can detect reliably the location of each body part as if you would wearing a motion capture suit like they do in Hollywood and actors do. The difference is we do it without a suit."
Twelve local high school students were selected from 350 other students to participate in the 8 week paid internship to work alongside Salk scientists. They are learning how to use computer vision to track the motions of humans and mice to be able to analyze the risk of diseases.
Two participants from Canyon Crest Academy High School said they see the value in the software they are learning how to use.
"This is important and it removes a lot of the guess work and variability when we humans are observing things and it's useful to apply computers to this problem," David Samy said.
Will Knickrehm agreed.
"I think AI is definitely the future and where this world is headed and it's important to learn how it works and that it's used for good," he said.
SLEAP is already used in hundreds of labs in across the world. Periera said AI is here to stay for years to come.
"It's already the present," he said. "AI is already used in all fields of medicine and its premise is only going to continue to grow."
Students can apply in January for next year’s high school summer scholar’s program.
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