28 research outputs found
Human or Machine: Reflections on Turing-Inspired Testing for the Everyday
In his seminal paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", Alan Turing
introduced the "imitation game" as part of exploring the concept of machine
intelligence. The Turing Test has since been the subject of much analysis,
debate, refinement and extension. Here we sidestep the question of whether a
particular machine can be labeled intelligent, or can be said to match human
capabilities in a given context. Instead, but inspired by Turing, we draw
attention to the seemingly simpler challenge of determining whether one is
interacting with a human or with a machine, in the context of everyday life. We
are interested in reflecting upon the importance of this Human-or-Machine
question and the use one may make of a reliable answer thereto. Whereas
Turing's original test is widely considered to be more of a thought experiment,
the Human-or-Machine question as discussed here has obvious practical
significance. And while the jury is still not in regarding the possibility of
machines that can mimic human behavior with high fidelity in everyday contexts,
we argue that near-term exploration of the issues raised here can contribute to
development methods for computerized systems, and may also improve our
understanding of human behavior in general
Autonomics: In Search of a Foundation for Next Generation Autonomous Systems
The potential benefits of autonomous systems have been driving intensive
development of such systems, and of supporting tools and methodologies.
However, there are still major issues to be dealt with before such development
becomes commonplace engineering practice, with accepted and trustworthy
deliverables. We argue that a solid, evolving, publicly available,
community-controlled foundation for developing next generation autonomous
systems is a must. We discuss what is needed for such a foundation, identify a
central aspect thereof, namely, decision-making, and focus on three main
challenges: (i) how to specify autonomous system behavior and the associated
decisions in the face of unpredictability of future events and conditions and
the inadequacy of current languages for describing these; (ii) how to carry out
faithful simulation and analysis of system behavior with respect to rich
environments that include humans, physical artifacts, and other systems,; and
(iii) how to engineer systems that combine executable model-driven techniques
and data-driven machine learning techniques. We argue that autonomics, i.e.,
the study of unique challenges presented by next generation autonomous systems,
and research towards resolving them, can introduce substantial contributions
and innovations in system engineering and computer science
NASH limits anti-tumour surveillance in immunotherapy-treated HCC.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can have viral or non-viral causes1-5. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an important driver of HCC. Immunotherapy has been approved for treating HCC, but biomarker-based stratification of patients for optimal response to therapy is an unmet need6,7. Here we report the progressive accumulation of exhausted, unconventionally activated CD8+PD1+ T cells in NASH-affected livers. In preclinical models of NASH-induced HCC, therapeutic immunotherapy targeted at programmed death-1 (PD1) expanded activated CD8+PD1+ T cells within tumours but did not lead to tumour regression, which indicates that tumour immune surveillance was impaired. When given prophylactically, anti-PD1 treatment led to an increase in the incidence of NASH-HCC and in the number and size of tumour nodules, which correlated with increased hepatic CD8+PD1+CXCR6+, TOX+, and TNF+ T cells. The increase in HCC triggered by anti-PD1 treatment was prevented by depletion of CD8+ T cells or TNF neutralization, suggesting that CD8+ T cells help to induce NASH-HCC, rather than invigorating or executing immune surveillance. We found similar phenotypic and functional profiles in hepatic CD8+PD1+ T cells from humans with NAFLD or NASH. A meta-analysis of three randomized phase III clinical trials that tested inhibitors of PDL1 (programmed death-ligand 1) or PD1 in more than 1,600 patients with advanced HCC revealed that immune therapy did not improve survival in patients with non-viral HCC. In two additional cohorts, patients with NASH-driven HCC who received anti-PD1 or anti-PDL1 treatment showed reduced overall survival compared to patients with other aetiologies. Collectively, these data show that non-viral HCC, and particularly NASH-HCC, might be less responsive to immunotherapy, probably owing to NASH-related aberrant T cell activation causing tissue damage that leads to impaired immune surveillance. Our data provide a rationale for stratification of patients with HCC according to underlying aetiology in studies of immunotherapy as a primary or adjuvant treatment