Regina Barzilay, AI Pioneer – Medicine
Regina Barzilay is a pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence to advance human health. A professor at MIT and AI Faculty Lead at the MIT Jameel Clinic, her research explores how machine learning can help physicians detect disease earlier, predict how an illness may develop, personalize treatment, and accelerate the discovery of new medicines.
Dr. Barzilay began her career in natural language processing, developing computational methods to understand human language. Her own diagnosis with breast cancer informed a significant shift in the direction of her research and an initial foray into applying artificial intelligence to breast cancer detection and risk prediction. That work ultimately broadened into a larger effort to explore how AI might address some of medicine’s most difficult challenges.
In her SPI interview, Dr. Barzilay traces that journey and discusses the development of Mirai, an AI model designed to predict future breast cancer risk from mammograms; the use of machine learning to help personalize cancer treatment; and Halicin, an antibiotic identified through AI-based screening. She also considers the essential role of human judgment as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable and more deeply integrated into healthcare.
Named to the 2025 TIME100 AI list, Dr. Barzilay is a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the IEEE Frances E. Allen Medal and the AAAI Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence for the Benefit of Humanity. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Regina Barzilay, AI Pioneer – Medicine