Intuitive Surgical, an American biotechnology company, introduced DaVinci surgical robots in the late 1990s, and they became groundbreaking teleoperation equipment. Expert surgeons could operate on patients remotely, manipulating the robotic arms and their surgical tools based on a video feed from DaVinci\u2019s built-in cameras and endoscopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, John Hopkins University researchers put a ChatGPT-like AI in charge of a DaVinci robot and taught it to perform a gallbladder-removal surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea to put a computer behind the wheel of a surgical robot is not entirely new, but these had mostly relied on using pre-programmed actions. \u201cThe program told the robot exactly how to move and what to do. It worked like in these Kuka robotic arms, welding cars on factory floors,\u201d says Ji Woong Kim, a robotics researcher who led the study on autonomous surgery. To improve on that, a team led by Axel Krieger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at John Hopkins University, built STAR: the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot. In 2022, it successfully performed a surgery on a live pig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even STAR couldn\u2019t do it without specially marked tissues and a predetermined plan. STAR\u2019s key difference was that its AI could make adjustments to this plan based on the feed from cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new robot can do considerably more….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> Experimental surgery performed by AI-driven surgical robot https:\/\/t.co\/dO71bcrw7z<\/a><\/p>— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) July 21, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>