Tech News Digest: 'Merlin' AI Diagnostics, GPT-5.3 Update, and Quantum-Safe Encryption
Tech News Digest: March 4, 2026 ‘Merlin’ AI Revolutionizes Medical Diagnostics with Automated CT Scan Analysis A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has developed a versatile machine learning model named Merlin that analyzes 3D abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans for a wide range of diagnostic tasks. This powerful AI in healthcare is capable of identifying anatomical features and, more significantly, predicting disease onset years in advance. Merlin was trained on a large dataset of patient CT scans linked with radiology reports and medical diagnosis codes from Stanford University. In testing, the general-purpose model surpassed other automated tools specifically designed for the tasks it was evaluated on, signaling a major step forward in streamlining clinical workflows and enabling earlier disease diagnosis. ...