Summer 2025 will have three of the shortest days on record
Our pale blue dot's daily rotation is normally equivalent to about 86,400 seconds — or 24 hours — but three days this summer will see as much as 1.51 milliseconds shaved off the clock, according to a report from Popular Mechanics.
The International Rotation and Reference Systems Service found that July 9, July 22, and Aug. 5 will be victims of the time-slicing, putting them among the shortest since 2020.
Scientists said these dates will be when the Moon is furthest from the equator which will impact the rate of the Earth's rotation, the report stated.
The shortest day recorded since 2020 was July 5, 2024, which was a full 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average — with experts unable to pin down the reason for the increased acceleration.
'Nobody expected this,' Leonic Zotov, Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told TimeandDate.com regarding the quickening trend.
'The cause of this acceleration is not explained. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration,' Zotov added.
Earth's official timekeepers may need to take a first-ever drastic measure to keep up with the new pace — instating a 'negative leap second' in 2029, according to a study published in Nature last year.
'This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,' study lead author and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California Duncan Agnew said at the time.
'It's not a huge change in the Earth's rotation that's going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It's yet another indication that we're in a very unusual time.'
Days on Earth have not always been 24-hours long, with rotations during the Bronze Age clocking in at roughly 23 hours.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
2 days ago
- The Advertiser
Alien planet lashed by flares from 'angry beast' star
Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star, a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface, larger than any observed from the sun, reaching several million kilometres into space that over time may strip much of its atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet's interaction with the star's magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. "A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres. This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system's planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, but with only 5 per cent of Jupiter's mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy. It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system's innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star's atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star's magnetic field - either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet's composition. "We don't know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star's magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave," Ilin said. "As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake. The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected." The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet's atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet's mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. "At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what's called a sub-Neptune, a gas planet smaller than Neptune," Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system's gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA's TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency's CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite. Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star, a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface, larger than any observed from the sun, reaching several million kilometres into space that over time may strip much of its atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet's interaction with the star's magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. "A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres. This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system's planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, but with only 5 per cent of Jupiter's mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy. It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system's innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star's atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star's magnetic field - either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet's composition. "We don't know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star's magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave," Ilin said. "As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake. The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected." The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet's atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet's mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. "At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what's called a sub-Neptune, a gas planet smaller than Neptune," Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system's gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA's TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency's CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite. Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star, a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface, larger than any observed from the sun, reaching several million kilometres into space that over time may strip much of its atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet's interaction with the star's magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. "A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres. This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system's planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, but with only 5 per cent of Jupiter's mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy. It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system's innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star's atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star's magnetic field - either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet's composition. "We don't know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star's magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave," Ilin said. "As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake. The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected." The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet's atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet's mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. "At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what's called a sub-Neptune, a gas planet smaller than Neptune," Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system's gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA's TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency's CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite. Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star, a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface, larger than any observed from the sun, reaching several million kilometres into space that over time may strip much of its atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet's interaction with the star's magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. "A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres. This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system's planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, but with only 5 per cent of Jupiter's mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy. It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system's innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star's atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star's magnetic field - either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet's composition. "We don't know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star's magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave," Ilin said. "As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake. The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected." The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet's atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet's mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. "At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what's called a sub-Neptune, a gas planet smaller than Neptune," Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system's gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA's TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency's CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite.
News.com.au
6 days ago
- News.com.au
Summer 2025 will have three of the shortest days on record
The Earth is set to have three remarkably shorter than average days in the coming weeks as the Earth's rotation unexpectedly accelerates, according to scientists. Our pale blue dot's daily rotation is normally equivalent to about 86,400 seconds — or 24 hours — but three days this summer will see as much as 1.51 milliseconds shaved off the clock, according to a report from Popular Mechanics. The International Rotation and Reference Systems Service found that July 9, July 22, and Aug. 5 will be victims of the time-slicing, putting them among the shortest since 2020. Scientists said these dates will be when the Moon is furthest from the equator which will impact the rate of the Earth's rotation, the report stated. The shortest day recorded since 2020 was July 5, 2024, which was a full 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average — with experts unable to pin down the reason for the increased acceleration. 'Nobody expected this,' Leonic Zotov, Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told regarding the quickening trend. 'The cause of this acceleration is not explained. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration,' Zotov added. Earth's official timekeepers may need to take a first-ever drastic measure to keep up with the new pace — instating a 'negative leap second' in 2029, according to a study published in Nature last year. 'This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,' study lead author and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California Duncan Agnew said at the time. 'It's not a huge change in the Earth's rotation that's going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It's yet another indication that we're in a very unusual time.' Days on Earth have not always been 24-hours long, with rotations during the Bronze Age clocking in at roughly 23 hours.
The Advertiser
27-06-2025
- The Advertiser
How do you want your medical professionals to be using AI
The healthcare industry is no stranger to innovation. "Once in a generation" discoveries like penicillin, anaesthesia, and mRNA vaccines have had huge impacts on health outcomes. The smallpox vaccine alone is estimated to have saved over 200 million lives. Today, we are on the precipice of a medical revolution that could increase the frequency of these "once in a generation" scientific breakthroughs - the introduction of artificial intelligence. For an industry bogged down in administrative tasks, AI can serve as a trusty assistant to ensure highly skilled, talented medical professionals have more time to spend on patient care. Already medical research, diagnoses, operational procedures, clinical results, and patient care are beginning to leverage data and AI. For healthcare professionals, the automation of administrative tasks is already helping hospitals and primary care with workflow efficiency. In medical research, the ability to analyse massive data sets in previously unimaginable timeframes is supporting clinical studies. Recently, Stanford University (Nature, 2023) researchers used deep learning algorithms to analyse retinal scans, achieving a staggering 95 per cent accuracy in detecting diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. The analysis of large datasets could also lead to early detection of health conditions, particularly in childhood neurological conditions which benefit from early intervention. Detection often relies on subtle cues that may go under the radar. In these cases, AI can help to pick up these early indicators. On a wider scale, AI also has the potential to completely change public health intelligence. In our own backyard, the South Australian government recently announced a $28 million program to implement AI applications across the public sector. Healthcare is a priority for the program, with evidence showing it can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and allow health workers to spend more time on clinical care. This is being replicated across the world, with hospitals, state governments and global groups such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) all expanding the use of AI to help capture, analyse, and forecast health trends. While Australia's AI ambitions are high, uncertainty remains over what shape federal legislation will take. There are calls from some quarters to adopt stricter, more prescriptive laws similar to the EU. Others argue in favour of leaning in and embracing the new AI frontier. Despite this, the federal government clearly sees AI's potential in healthcare with almost $30 million being invested for research into new ways AI could transform the sector. As organisations - including hospitals and healthcare providers - wait for policy clarity, they should put the foundations in place to hit the ground running once those questions are answered. For AI to reach its revolutionary potential, organisations need to have a robust data strategy in place. In healthcare, the benefits from the use of AI and machine learning are higher than in many other industries, but that means the stakes are higher, too. One of the biggest concerns in adopting AI is its potential for incorrect, inaccurate or potentially harmful predictions. We know the technology thrives on finding patterns in large volumes of data, but this is only possible when the data it consumes is clean, accurate and well-structured. That requires reliable and scalable infrastructure that makes data easy to use, simple to connect, and - above all - trusted. Yet in many healthcare environments, information is siloed across departments, facilities, and even countries. For AI to be implemented effectively, collapsing data silos into one location must be a priority. AI's predictive nature is restricted to the data it has access to. Biases, errors, or missing information in this data can lead to the AI model providing false information. READ MORE: The Centrelink recipients fighting for survival who you mightn't have heard of This is why public-facing AI models often make mistakes or hallucinate - the information they draw from is too vast and disorganised. In healthcare, such hallucinations could be life-threatening. AI tools in the healthcare industry must therefore be anchored by trusted, rigorously validated data sets to maximise accuracy and ensure the outputs are factual and dependable. Healthcare organisations, whether public or private health providers, health insurance, or medical research facilities, must all have a centralised view of the organisation's data to ensure any use of AI is gathering context and information from a complete and trusted data source. Some of Australia's largest healthcare firms, such as Telstra Health, are already expanding technology partnerships to ensure its digital ecosystem can support modernisation, without losing focus on customer care. Regardless of which route Australia's AI policy takes, AI is not going anywhere. In healthcare, more than any other industry, the benefits could be truly profound, particularly when it comes to medical research. By setting the data foundations in place, organisations can build on their AI success to date and extract the full potential the technology has to offer once policy questions are answered. Once all the pieces are in place, the next "once in a generation" discovery could be just a few clicks away. The healthcare industry is no stranger to innovation. "Once in a generation" discoveries like penicillin, anaesthesia, and mRNA vaccines have had huge impacts on health outcomes. The smallpox vaccine alone is estimated to have saved over 200 million lives. Today, we are on the precipice of a medical revolution that could increase the frequency of these "once in a generation" scientific breakthroughs - the introduction of artificial intelligence. For an industry bogged down in administrative tasks, AI can serve as a trusty assistant to ensure highly skilled, talented medical professionals have more time to spend on patient care. Already medical research, diagnoses, operational procedures, clinical results, and patient care are beginning to leverage data and AI. For healthcare professionals, the automation of administrative tasks is already helping hospitals and primary care with workflow efficiency. In medical research, the ability to analyse massive data sets in previously unimaginable timeframes is supporting clinical studies. Recently, Stanford University (Nature, 2023) researchers used deep learning algorithms to analyse retinal scans, achieving a staggering 95 per cent accuracy in detecting diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. The analysis of large datasets could also lead to early detection of health conditions, particularly in childhood neurological conditions which benefit from early intervention. Detection often relies on subtle cues that may go under the radar. In these cases, AI can help to pick up these early indicators. On a wider scale, AI also has the potential to completely change public health intelligence. In our own backyard, the South Australian government recently announced a $28 million program to implement AI applications across the public sector. Healthcare is a priority for the program, with evidence showing it can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and allow health workers to spend more time on clinical care. This is being replicated across the world, with hospitals, state governments and global groups such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) all expanding the use of AI to help capture, analyse, and forecast health trends. While Australia's AI ambitions are high, uncertainty remains over what shape federal legislation will take. There are calls from some quarters to adopt stricter, more prescriptive laws similar to the EU. Others argue in favour of leaning in and embracing the new AI frontier. Despite this, the federal government clearly sees AI's potential in healthcare with almost $30 million being invested for research into new ways AI could transform the sector. As organisations - including hospitals and healthcare providers - wait for policy clarity, they should put the foundations in place to hit the ground running once those questions are answered. For AI to reach its revolutionary potential, organisations need to have a robust data strategy in place. In healthcare, the benefits from the use of AI and machine learning are higher than in many other industries, but that means the stakes are higher, too. One of the biggest concerns in adopting AI is its potential for incorrect, inaccurate or potentially harmful predictions. We know the technology thrives on finding patterns in large volumes of data, but this is only possible when the data it consumes is clean, accurate and well-structured. That requires reliable and scalable infrastructure that makes data easy to use, simple to connect, and - above all - trusted. Yet in many healthcare environments, information is siloed across departments, facilities, and even countries. For AI to be implemented effectively, collapsing data silos into one location must be a priority. AI's predictive nature is restricted to the data it has access to. Biases, errors, or missing information in this data can lead to the AI model providing false information. READ MORE: The Centrelink recipients fighting for survival who you mightn't have heard of This is why public-facing AI models often make mistakes or hallucinate - the information they draw from is too vast and disorganised. In healthcare, such hallucinations could be life-threatening. AI tools in the healthcare industry must therefore be anchored by trusted, rigorously validated data sets to maximise accuracy and ensure the outputs are factual and dependable. Healthcare organisations, whether public or private health providers, health insurance, or medical research facilities, must all have a centralised view of the organisation's data to ensure any use of AI is gathering context and information from a complete and trusted data source. Some of Australia's largest healthcare firms, such as Telstra Health, are already expanding technology partnerships to ensure its digital ecosystem can support modernisation, without losing focus on customer care. Regardless of which route Australia's AI policy takes, AI is not going anywhere. In healthcare, more than any other industry, the benefits could be truly profound, particularly when it comes to medical research. By setting the data foundations in place, organisations can build on their AI success to date and extract the full potential the technology has to offer once policy questions are answered. Once all the pieces are in place, the next "once in a generation" discovery could be just a few clicks away. The healthcare industry is no stranger to innovation. "Once in a generation" discoveries like penicillin, anaesthesia, and mRNA vaccines have had huge impacts on health outcomes. The smallpox vaccine alone is estimated to have saved over 200 million lives. Today, we are on the precipice of a medical revolution that could increase the frequency of these "once in a generation" scientific breakthroughs - the introduction of artificial intelligence. For an industry bogged down in administrative tasks, AI can serve as a trusty assistant to ensure highly skilled, talented medical professionals have more time to spend on patient care. Already medical research, diagnoses, operational procedures, clinical results, and patient care are beginning to leverage data and AI. For healthcare professionals, the automation of administrative tasks is already helping hospitals and primary care with workflow efficiency. In medical research, the ability to analyse massive data sets in previously unimaginable timeframes is supporting clinical studies. Recently, Stanford University (Nature, 2023) researchers used deep learning algorithms to analyse retinal scans, achieving a staggering 95 per cent accuracy in detecting diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. The analysis of large datasets could also lead to early detection of health conditions, particularly in childhood neurological conditions which benefit from early intervention. Detection often relies on subtle cues that may go under the radar. In these cases, AI can help to pick up these early indicators. On a wider scale, AI also has the potential to completely change public health intelligence. In our own backyard, the South Australian government recently announced a $28 million program to implement AI applications across the public sector. Healthcare is a priority for the program, with evidence showing it can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and allow health workers to spend more time on clinical care. This is being replicated across the world, with hospitals, state governments and global groups such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) all expanding the use of AI to help capture, analyse, and forecast health trends. While Australia's AI ambitions are high, uncertainty remains over what shape federal legislation will take. There are calls from some quarters to adopt stricter, more prescriptive laws similar to the EU. Others argue in favour of leaning in and embracing the new AI frontier. Despite this, the federal government clearly sees AI's potential in healthcare with almost $30 million being invested for research into new ways AI could transform the sector. As organisations - including hospitals and healthcare providers - wait for policy clarity, they should put the foundations in place to hit the ground running once those questions are answered. For AI to reach its revolutionary potential, organisations need to have a robust data strategy in place. In healthcare, the benefits from the use of AI and machine learning are higher than in many other industries, but that means the stakes are higher, too. One of the biggest concerns in adopting AI is its potential for incorrect, inaccurate or potentially harmful predictions. We know the technology thrives on finding patterns in large volumes of data, but this is only possible when the data it consumes is clean, accurate and well-structured. That requires reliable and scalable infrastructure that makes data easy to use, simple to connect, and - above all - trusted. Yet in many healthcare environments, information is siloed across departments, facilities, and even countries. For AI to be implemented effectively, collapsing data silos into one location must be a priority. AI's predictive nature is restricted to the data it has access to. Biases, errors, or missing information in this data can lead to the AI model providing false information. READ MORE: The Centrelink recipients fighting for survival who you mightn't have heard of This is why public-facing AI models often make mistakes or hallucinate - the information they draw from is too vast and disorganised. In healthcare, such hallucinations could be life-threatening. AI tools in the healthcare industry must therefore be anchored by trusted, rigorously validated data sets to maximise accuracy and ensure the outputs are factual and dependable. Healthcare organisations, whether public or private health providers, health insurance, or medical research facilities, must all have a centralised view of the organisation's data to ensure any use of AI is gathering context and information from a complete and trusted data source. Some of Australia's largest healthcare firms, such as Telstra Health, are already expanding technology partnerships to ensure its digital ecosystem can support modernisation, without losing focus on customer care. Regardless of which route Australia's AI policy takes, AI is not going anywhere. In healthcare, more than any other industry, the benefits could be truly profound, particularly when it comes to medical research. By setting the data foundations in place, organisations can build on their AI success to date and extract the full potential the technology has to offer once policy questions are answered. Once all the pieces are in place, the next "once in a generation" discovery could be just a few clicks away. The healthcare industry is no stranger to innovation. "Once in a generation" discoveries like penicillin, anaesthesia, and mRNA vaccines have had huge impacts on health outcomes. The smallpox vaccine alone is estimated to have saved over 200 million lives. Today, we are on the precipice of a medical revolution that could increase the frequency of these "once in a generation" scientific breakthroughs - the introduction of artificial intelligence. For an industry bogged down in administrative tasks, AI can serve as a trusty assistant to ensure highly skilled, talented medical professionals have more time to spend on patient care. Already medical research, diagnoses, operational procedures, clinical results, and patient care are beginning to leverage data and AI. For healthcare professionals, the automation of administrative tasks is already helping hospitals and primary care with workflow efficiency. In medical research, the ability to analyse massive data sets in previously unimaginable timeframes is supporting clinical studies. Recently, Stanford University (Nature, 2023) researchers used deep learning algorithms to analyse retinal scans, achieving a staggering 95 per cent accuracy in detecting diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness. The analysis of large datasets could also lead to early detection of health conditions, particularly in childhood neurological conditions which benefit from early intervention. Detection often relies on subtle cues that may go under the radar. In these cases, AI can help to pick up these early indicators. On a wider scale, AI also has the potential to completely change public health intelligence. In our own backyard, the South Australian government recently announced a $28 million program to implement AI applications across the public sector. Healthcare is a priority for the program, with evidence showing it can reduce costs, improve operational efficiency, and allow health workers to spend more time on clinical care. This is being replicated across the world, with hospitals, state governments and global groups such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) all expanding the use of AI to help capture, analyse, and forecast health trends. While Australia's AI ambitions are high, uncertainty remains over what shape federal legislation will take. There are calls from some quarters to adopt stricter, more prescriptive laws similar to the EU. Others argue in favour of leaning in and embracing the new AI frontier. Despite this, the federal government clearly sees AI's potential in healthcare with almost $30 million being invested for research into new ways AI could transform the sector. As organisations - including hospitals and healthcare providers - wait for policy clarity, they should put the foundations in place to hit the ground running once those questions are answered. For AI to reach its revolutionary potential, organisations need to have a robust data strategy in place. In healthcare, the benefits from the use of AI and machine learning are higher than in many other industries, but that means the stakes are higher, too. One of the biggest concerns in adopting AI is its potential for incorrect, inaccurate or potentially harmful predictions. We know the technology thrives on finding patterns in large volumes of data, but this is only possible when the data it consumes is clean, accurate and well-structured. That requires reliable and scalable infrastructure that makes data easy to use, simple to connect, and - above all - trusted. Yet in many healthcare environments, information is siloed across departments, facilities, and even countries. For AI to be implemented effectively, collapsing data silos into one location must be a priority. AI's predictive nature is restricted to the data it has access to. Biases, errors, or missing information in this data can lead to the AI model providing false information. READ MORE: The Centrelink recipients fighting for survival who you mightn't have heard of This is why public-facing AI models often make mistakes or hallucinate - the information they draw from is too vast and disorganised. In healthcare, such hallucinations could be life-threatening. AI tools in the healthcare industry must therefore be anchored by trusted, rigorously validated data sets to maximise accuracy and ensure the outputs are factual and dependable. Healthcare organisations, whether public or private health providers, health insurance, or medical research facilities, must all have a centralised view of the organisation's data to ensure any use of AI is gathering context and information from a complete and trusted data source. Some of Australia's largest healthcare firms, such as Telstra Health, are already expanding technology partnerships to ensure its digital ecosystem can support modernisation, without losing focus on customer care. Regardless of which route Australia's AI policy takes, AI is not going anywhere. In healthcare, more than any other industry, the benefits could be truly profound, particularly when it comes to medical research. By setting the data foundations in place, organisations can build on their AI success to date and extract the full potential the technology has to offer once policy questions are answered. Once all the pieces are in place, the next "once in a generation" discovery could be just a few clicks away.
