NASA, Google are training AI to treat astronauts in space
NASA and Google are developing the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA), an AI tool that helps astronauts handle medical issues on their own during long space missions—think Moon or Mars trips where calling a doctor on Earth isn't really an option.
How does CMO-DA work?
CMO-DA runs on Google Cloud's Vertex AI, taking in speech, text, and images to offer real-time medical advice.
It's trained with space medicine know-how and tested on cases like ankle injuries and ear pain, scoring 74% to 88% accuracy in preliminary testing scenarios.
Potential earthly benefits
NASA wants to upgrade CMO-DA with data from medical devices and adapt it for life in microgravity.
Beyond space, this tech could help people in remote places here on Earth get better healthcare—even if there's no specialist around.