Researchers have created a system called CytoDiffusion that uses generative AI—the same type of technology behind image generators such as DALL-E—to study the shape and structure of blood cells.

Unlike many AI models, which are trained to simply recognize patterns, the researchers—led by the University of Cambridge, University College London and Queen Mary University of London—showed that CytoDiffusion could accurately identify a wide range of normal blood cell appearances and spot unusual or rare cells that may indicate disease.

Their results are reported in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.