Big Data is dood – lang leve AI?

Traditionally, Big Data refers to data that are too large or complex to be dealt with by conventional data-processing tools. With – and perhaps even due to – its unconventional nature came the hope that Big Data would be able to solve problems in areas that until that time had been too complex or complicated to handle. Now, ten years later, the distinction between data and Big Data has become outdated. Analyses using very large files are increasingly been published in scientific clinical journals. However, the idea of a breakthrough still persists: that machine learning and artificial intelligence will have much to teach us. Yet the science of medicine cannot work without theory, and prediction – which artificial intelligence sometimes does very well – is not synonymous with understanding and explaining.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.