New York patients who are scheduled to have a surgery that uses computers to assist in the procedure may be interested to learn that in February, a patient’s heart surgery was stopped for five minutes when a computer began doing an automatic virus check. Although the patient, who was sedated at the time, was not harmed, the incident does highlight the vulnerability of such systems to errors that could potentially be life-threatening.

Robots have long been involved in the making of cars and electronics. They are also starting to learn how to make decisions that enable them to drive cars for us. As robots get smarter, there may be potential applications for artificial intelligence in the medical field. Specifically, it may be possible for a robot to perform surgery on its own in the future.