AI-guided cameras make solo surgery possible in step towards surgical automation

Ricardo Funke, the chief of surgery at Clinica Las Condes in Santiago, Chile, had a new assistant during a laparoscopic surgery on Monday - an autonomous artificial intelligence-guided camera that allowed him to carry out a gallbladder removal alone. The procedure combined magnetic surgical instruments with software that autonomously directs the surgical camera, tracking the surgeon’s tools and adjusting angles without a human assistant. "The camera was following me wherever I moved my hands and the whole process was excellent," Funke told Reuters after the surgery. "This camera lets us do the surgery alone, I did it alone with the robot." Companies, universities and research centers across the world have been developing AI-assisted tools to perform or assist in surgery....