A robot has been “taught” to sew patients back together after surgery.
Incisions must be tightly closed to aid healing and ward off infections, so to reduce the space for error, scientists from the University of California in Berkeley have created Motion2Vec.
Read more: Two Plays on Robot-Assisted Surgery
The semi-supervised device “learnt” how to stitch surgical incisions by watching YouTube videos of doctors performing the procedure, breaking down their movements and then mimicking them.
Although the technology is in its infancy, the scientists hope Motion2Vec will one day support doctors by closing relatively simple incisions.
Surgical incisions have to be tightly closed to aid healing and reduce the risk of infection. (Getty Images)
YouTube videos were chosen due to hundreds of hours of material being uploaded to the site every minute.
“There’s a lot of appeal in learning from visual observations, compared to traditional interfaces for learning in a static way or learning from [mimicking] trajectories, because of the huge amount of information content available in existing videos,” lead developer Dr Ajay Tanwani told Engadget.
To ensure Motion2Vec could make sense of what it was watching, the scientists built an artificial intelligence (AI) network.
By Economist Lassi Pensikkala | International Business Developer | Multilingual communicator | Connecting ideas, people & opportunities across borders | Founder of AmerExperience & SegurosAmer |
Lassi Pensikkala is the creator of AmerExperience.com, founder of SegurosAmer.com, and an international business developer with over four decades of global experience. Hailing from Finland, Lassi has lived and worked across Europe and Latin America, driven by a deep curiosity for cultures, languages, and meaningful human connection.
He writes regularly, offering thought leadership on topics such as travel, golf, and international cross-cultural business. You can follow his work on Telegram, connect with him on LinkedIn, or read his articles and updates via Google News, Flipboard, and other social media platforms.
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Expertise
• International Business Development
• Creator of AmerExperience.com and SegurosAmer.com
• Strategic consulting for cross-border ventures
• Avid golfer and advocate for golf psychology
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Education
Lassi studied Foreign Trade at the Business College of Turku, Finland, and later graduated as economist MSc (Econ) from the University of Hamburg, Germany, where he also pursued studies in Psychology and Sociology.
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Language skills
Multilingual in English, German, Spanish, Swedish, and Finnish
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Life philosophy
“Live freely, seek knowledge, and be open to the richness of life’s experiences.”
Lassi’s passion for exploration started early. Growing up during the golden era of Rock’n Roll, student movements, and the first moon landing, he experienced the unique Nordic freedom of crossing borders without passports — a freedom that still inspires his global lifestyle today.
For him, true freedom means exploring new lands, embracing diverse cultures, and forming real connections with people around the world.
