Headlines about artificial intelligence often blare big promises and underscore the breakneck pace of this evolving technology. Within the field of health care and medical research, the application of AI is likewise focused on the possibilities – only in a more measured approach. The marriage is solidly anchored in improving results for both patient and provider. “I think there are a lot of conversations about AI replacing your doctor,” said Casey Greene, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a national expert on computational biology and artificial intelligence. “I think what gets me excited is not AI replacing your doctor. It's helping your doctor spend more time with you and less time in the chart.”
The research of June Gruber, Ph.D., examines happiness and positive emotion, words that might bring to mind a smiling face. It’s no surprise, then, when she describes her CU Boulder lab – the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology (or PEP) Laboratory – as a fun, collaborative and creative space. Positive emotion also plays a role in mental illness, which Gruber and her team also study. The work is not eternal sunshine. "There really can be too much of a good thing when it comes to positive emotion," she said. "And that’s one of the central ideas in our work: that positive emotions, while often helpful and adaptive, can also have a darker side when experienced in excess or in the wrong context."
