Capable of predicting hotbeds of criminal activity as well as creating synthetic fingerprints, artificial intelligence is everywhere. Considering how readily the technology is cropping up in everything, from helping to predict the weather to powering motorized wheelchairs based on facial expressions, AI will likely be helping to deliver babies in the future, according to some experts.

Machine learning, the most recognizable subset of AI, allows machines to learn a task without specific programming for that purpose thanks to algorithms designed to understand relationships among significant amounts of data.

With this in mind, it is entirely possible to envision AI that can translate maternal and fetal movements, bio signals such as heart rate and blood pressure as well as breathing patterns at childbirth, thereby identifying critical individual patterns in the emotions, behaviors and physiology of mothers and fetuses.

Each day, the AI system would learn more, subsequently becoming more adept at identifying which combination of factors leads to what specific outcomes. Experts believe that such a system might one day make minute-by-minute suggestions for what to do during labor, including critical decision-making involving whether the patient should forge ahead with a vaginal birth or if they should instead opt for a caesarean section. Theoretically, such a system might one day cut back on the number of unnecessary interventions that often take place during childbirth as well as reducing maternal mortality rates.

While some supporters of such a system might argue that it could save lives, opponents might suggest that human companionship in labor as well as midwifery and obstetric practices might be entirely lost.

Although AI involvement in childbirth is still mostly the stuff of science fiction, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an AI robot capable of helping out in the delivery room. Under observation, the robot’s recommendations to both nurses and doctors were accepted 90% of the time. Likewise, the number of errors made in the delivery room stayed almost the same whether the robot was present or not. Based on those outcomes, the researchers believe the AI robot would be safe and efficient to assist in the delivery room.

Despite arguments suggesting that human contact, particularly in the delivery room, greatly impacts birth health outcomes, it seems there is no stopping the juggernaut that is AI. As such, we should prepare for its arrival in the delivery room someday soon, at least in an assisting capacity.