Artificial intelligence in the IVF laboratory
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making significant inroads into healthcare, and assisted reproduction is no exception. In recent years, numerous software platforms have emerged that analyse images and data from oocytes or embryos, and in this article, we will explain how they can contribute to decision-making in the in vitro fertilisation laboratory. An AI model serves as a ‘trained expert’ inside the computer: it learns by reviewing many real cases from the past (medical records, images, results, etc.) and extracts patterns to estimate probabilities in a new case. For example, using the patient’s age and a photo of an embryo, it can calculate the probability of achieving a pregnancy. It is not magic, nor does it predict the future: it provides estimates, not certainties.