Artificial Intelligence and Radiology: Have Rumors of the Radiologist's Demise Been Greatly Exaggerated?

Artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving computerized technology affecting multiple aspects of our lives. It is predicted that artificial intelligence will lead to a fundamental change in practice of many professional fields, including medicine. One of the most significant advances in artificial intelligence involves digital imaging and image recognition. Consequently, radiologists, who work in the most digitalized field of medicine, need to be familiar with this rapidly progressing technology. “Artificial intelligence,” “machine learning,” and “deep learning” are terms that tend to be used interchangeably in terms of advanced computer algorithms, but each has a different meaning. Objectives for this article are to demystify these terms for radiologists and to establish a basic understanding of this topic for the reader. We also discuss the impact that artificial intelligence might have on the field of radiology in the foreseeable future. Although artificial intelligence is unlikely to replace radiologists any time soon (if ever), we explore how this technology could be beneficial to radiologists.