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I would guess the automatic parts will be like a toolkit of tasks which the surgeon can delegate to an algorithm. You could imagine that an algorithm could sew skin together with a level of accuracy to prevent scarring, rejoin nerve and small blood vessels quicker and more accurately, or remove cancerous tissue tagged with a biomarker, while avoiding nerves or important structures nearby.

The surgeon could put the surgery into the controlled situation that the algorithm understands, and make some over-arching decisions through a UI (for instance, he could say 'join this nerve on this side to this nerve on the other', which might be difficult for the algorithm to work out), and then the algorithm would accomplish that task, and return control back to the surgeon.

More simply, a program could prevent a human surgeon using a machine like a Da Vinci from touching a nerve, or define the limits of bone removal.

The latter example does already exist in clinical use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGYVhSymNN4&t=3m20s




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