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AI dominates China’s elite doctors in cancer diagnosis competition
A custom-built AI designed to diagnose brain tumors and predict hematoma expansion dominated some of China’s best doctors in a competition last Saturday in Beijing. The AI, dubbed BioMind, ultimately scored 2:0 against its human competitors, comprised of 15 senior doctors from China’s premier hospitals.
BioMind was developed by a collaboration between a team from the Artificial Intelligence Research Center for Neurological Disorders at the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and researchers from the Capital Medical University. BioMind’s developers opted to feed the AI with data sets featuring tens of thousands of images depicting nervous-system-related diseases, which were retrieved from Tiantan Hospital’s archives stretching over the past decade.
Wang Yongjun, executive vice-president of Tiantan Hospital, stated that this training ultimately enabled the AI to become proficient in diagnosing neurological diseases such as meningioma and glioma with an accuracy rate of over 90%. According to Wang, such rates are comparable to the accuracy of a senior doctor, according to a report from state-owned Xinhua News.
During its the competition on Saturday, BioMind was able to correctly diagnose brain tumors with an accuracy rate of 87% out of a total of 225 cases. The AI was also able to complete its task in 15 minutes. In comparison, the team of 15 elite doctors was able to achieve an accuracy rate of 66% when diagnosing brain tumors, finishing the task in 30 minutes. Apart from this, BioMind was able to make correct predictions in 83% of brain hematoma expansion cases, while its human competition displayed a more conservative 63% accuracy.
Despite the AI’s strong performance against China’s elite doctors on Saturday, however, Cheng Jingliang, a professor of radiology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, stated that artificial intelligence systems for the medical field are still well into their infancy. According to Cheng, AI is already being used in hospitals to help doctors read images such as lung scans, but when it comes to giving full diagnoses to patients, artificial intelligence still lags far behind that of senior medical professionals.
In a statement to China Daily, Paul Parizel from the Antwerp University Hospital in Belgium, who served as a member of the jury during last Saturday’s AI vs. human doctors competition, believes that systems such as BioMind would prove to be incredibly valuable when integrated to existing medical practices.
“It will be like a GPS guiding a car. It will make proposals to a doctor and help the doctor diagnose. But it will be the doctor who ultimately decides, as there are a number of factors that a machine cannot take into consideration, such as a patient’s state of health and family situation,” he said.
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The United States initially led the artificial intelligence race, but over the years, China has steadily gained ground in the AI industry. Thanks to a population that is compliant to the application of new technologies, as well as a government that actively pushes AI researchers to push further, China is on track to overtake the United States in the near future. Last January alone, the Chinese government announced plans to build a $2.1 billion technopark in Beijing that is expected to house companies actively involved in AI research and development. The United States does not have a comparable initiative to date. This was confirmed by Jack Clark of Elon Musk-backed OpenAI, who previously stated that the country lacks a central national strategy on artificial intelligence.
“It is confusing that we have this technology of such obvious power and merit and we are not hearing full-throated support, including financial support,” Clark said.
Elon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.
SpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.
The launch was overwhelmingly successful. SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Nevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.
Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean
Musk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to recover Starship after splashdown in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.
We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2026
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This helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.
Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims
Musk has already indicated that SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.
The ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
A ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.
It is a necessity to make life multiplanetary.
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Elon Musk has updated his timeline for when humans will walk on Mars and for when ships will simply get there.
The objective of getting to Mars has been one of Musk’s biggest goals since becoming a serial entrepreneur and realizing that time on Earth is limited. Musk has said several times he hopes to die on Mars, and not by impact.
Musk now believes that people will be on Mars in “roughly 5 to 7 years.” He said that a Mars lander will get there “a few years sooner.”
People on Mars in roughly 5 to 7 years.
Mars lander a few years sooner.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2026
The response from Musk comes after NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that SpaceX’s biggest priority is the Moon and not Mars. Because of this, Isaacman conceded that he believes nuclear power and propulsion investments will provide “potentially the pathway with the fewest miracles required to put four people on Mars in the next 10 to 15 years.”
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Of course, this is what NASA can do through taxpayer funding and nuclear investments, he added.
Musk’s grand ambitions are much more optimistic than most, and it is certainly a double-edged sword. This is not the first time timelines for Mars have been somewhat lofty, especially to those normal thinkers like you and me, not super geniuses like Musk.
In fact, the SpaceX and Tesla frontman has said on at least a dozen occasions that we could be on Mars in the coming years. Musk said 2020 would be the big year as early as 2009. In 2020, he was “highly confident” of a landing in 2026, and had even said 2024 in a best-case scenario.
The point is, the range has varied, and it’s anyone’s guess when we’ll get there. This latest adjustment to the timeline is typical of Musk, and while the Moon has seemingly taken priority over Mars, it is still worth mentioning that the ultimate goal is to make life multiplanetary, and it starts potentially with the Red Planet.
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) got an absolutely crazy price target rating from Raymond James after the company experienced a tough first few weeks following its Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Despite the tumultuous start, SpaceX has plenty of believers, and the company’s massively successful Starship launch last Friday, its 13th test flight of the massive rocket, went so smoothly that Raymond James analysts pushed its price target on the company to roughly 7 times its current trading level.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
The firm officially put a “Strong Buy” rating and an $800 price target on the stock. It currently trades at around $113. Its all-time high is $225.64, reaching this trading level shortly after shares first went public.
Raymond James’ price target is tied to the firm’s confidence after Starship’s 13th test flight. Analysts at the firm said it was an incremental step that reduces engineering risks, citing the widely successful heat shield test that CEO Elon Musk recently detailed, the smooth deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, and a successful in-space engine relight.
SpaceX also managed to see Starship splash down safely in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy Booster fell down to the Gulf of America with no incidents.
It is interesting to see these launches have such a tremendous impact on the stock and what investors think of it. After SpaceX initially delayed the Starship launch last week, shares fell tremendously. Most probably did not realize that the stand-down is a standard practice, especially if everything is not perfect.
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The mission was initially aborted due to an issue with Raptor engines. This was resolved, and Starship launched last Friday after another delay on Thursday, which was caused by weather.
Now that analysts have seen what SpaceX launches are capable of and how impressive the feat is, firms are adjusting their price targets accordingly, making it known that they have high expectations for the space exploration company.
Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch
Elon Musk updates the SpaceX timeline for Mars
