There is a truth, both humbling and liberating, that I have come to appreciate through my work and experience: our eyes, for all their marvel, are not speakers of reality. They are editors, and masterful ones at that. They have to be. To consciously process the sheer volume of photons and patterns that bombard us at every moment would be to descend into madness. And so, our minds learn to filter, to focus, to seek the expected.
This is not mere philosophy. It is a demonstrable fact. You may be familiar with the famous "Invisible Gorilla" experiment. Viewers are tasked with counting basketball passes and, in their focused state, a startling number fail to see a man in a gorilla suit walk directly through the scene. They miss the absurd, the unexpected, the gorilla in the room. Their eyes worked perfectly, but their perception was blind.
I often reflect on this phenomenon. How many "gorillas" do we miss in our daily lives, in our work, in our most critical moments of decision? What crucial detail lies just outside the narrow beam of our attention?
This line of questioning led me to a deep appreciation for the pathologist. Their entire discipline is built upon the art of seeing what is hidden in plain sight. Pathologists are trained to look past the obvious, to distinguish the crucial signal from the overwhelming noise, and to find the one aberrant cell among millions of healthy ones that tells the true story of a patient's life. They are, in essence, professional gorilla hunters.
My life’s work is dedicated to building the tools that empower these experts in their methodical search for truth. For me, the importance of this mission became profoundly real on my fourth healthcare mission to Africa, a trip that led me to a piece of art that now serves as my daily touchstone.
In 2022, I was in Ife, Nigeria. The project was larger than any one person or company, but my focus was on helping the pathology department at the OAU Teaching Hospital connect to the world. We were installing a digital pathology system, a conduit that would dissolve geography and allow these brilliant minds to collaborate with colleagues across the globe.
The joy in that room when the first images were shared, when the first consultation request was sent, was palpable. It was the joy of connection, of no longer being an island. In a gesture of gratitude that still moves me today, the team took me to a local art gallery and gifted me a painting of my choice.
This is the one I chose.
This is not mere philosophy. It is a demonstrable fact. You may be familiar with the famous "Invisible Gorilla" experiment. Viewers are tasked with counting basketball passes and, in their focused state, a startling number fail to see a man in a gorilla suit walk directly through the scene. They miss the absurd, the unexpected, the gorilla in the room. Their eyes worked perfectly, but their perception was blind.
I often reflect on this phenomenon. How many "gorillas" do we miss in our daily lives, in our work, in our most critical moments of decision? What crucial detail lies just outside the narrow beam of our attention?
This line of questioning led me to a deep appreciation for the pathologist. Their entire discipline is built upon the art of seeing what is hidden in plain sight. Pathologists are trained to look past the obvious, to distinguish the crucial signal from the overwhelming noise, and to find the one aberrant cell among millions of healthy ones that tells the true story of a patient's life. They are, in essence, professional gorilla hunters.
My life’s work is dedicated to building the tools that empower these experts in their methodical search for truth. For me, the importance of this mission became profoundly real on my fourth healthcare mission to Africa, a trip that led me to a piece of art that now serves as my daily touchstone.
In 2022, I was in Ife, Nigeria. The project was larger than any one person or company, but my focus was on helping the pathology department at the OAU Teaching Hospital connect to the world. We were installing a digital pathology system, a conduit that would dissolve geography and allow these brilliant minds to collaborate with colleagues across the globe.
The joy in that room when the first images were shared, when the first consultation request was sent, was palpable. It was the joy of connection, of no longer being an island. In a gesture of gratitude that still moves me today, the team took me to a local art gallery and gifted me a painting of my choice.
This is the one I chose.
At first glance, you see musicians. You feel their rhythm, their vibrant energy. It is a beautiful, complete story. But the artist invites us into a deeper dialogue. The fabric of the musicians' clothes is not fabric at all; it is a tapestry woven from thousands of small, unique patterns. Within those
patterns, if you look with a pathologist's eye, you will find other stories—tiny drums, cellular shapes, a universe of hidden symbols. The painting is a perfect allegory. It tells us that in art, in medicine, and in life, the first glance is only the preface. The real narrative lies in the details.
When I joined DigitCells in 2023, I brought the painting with me. It hangs in my office as a constant reminder of our purpose. We are not here to replace the expert human eye—the one that sees the beauty of the musicians. We are here to provide the lens, the tool, to augment that eye. We are here to help the experts find the gorillas.
AI, in its purest form, is our digital microscope for the modern age. It can scan the entire canvas in an instant, tirelessly, without the inherent "inattentional blindness" that affects us all. But its potential goes far beyond simply pointing things out.
This vision of augmentation is already seeping into our daily lives, becoming a collaborative partner to our senses. We see it in navigation apps that perceive traffic patterns miles ahead, or in language tools that translate conversations in real time, dissolving ancient barriers. The future is not one of overt robots, but of an elegantly integrated intelligence that helps us remember, connect, and understand the world with greater clarity.
For the pathologist, this promise translates into tools of almost unimaginable power. We are moving past just finding the "gorilla" and into the realm of understanding its intent and predicting its future path. AI will empower the pathologist to:
This is the ultimate goal: to equip the pathologist with a new set of senses. Senses capable of not just seeing, but of translating the silent, visual language of our biology into predictive, actionable insight. It’s not a perfect system, but perfection is a flawed goal. Instead, we should seek augmentation. I will gladly accept a reality augmented by a tool that is supported by evidence, validated by facts, and designed to help us all see more completely.
Human history is a blink in the eye of the cosmos. Our individual lives are but a fleeting glance. We will never see it all. But with the right partners, the right tools, and a willingness to look deeper, we can see more than we ever thought possible. We can see the universe in a pattern, a diagnosis in a cell, and a future of profound meaning hidden just beneath the surface of a first glance.
Author
Scott Kilcoyne
DigitCells Cofounder & COO
When I joined DigitCells in 2023, I brought the painting with me. It hangs in my office as a constant reminder of our purpose. We are not here to replace the expert human eye—the one that sees the beauty of the musicians. We are here to provide the lens, the tool, to augment that eye. We are here to help the experts find the gorillas.
AI, in its purest form, is our digital microscope for the modern age. It can scan the entire canvas in an instant, tirelessly, without the inherent "inattentional blindness" that affects us all. But its potential goes far beyond simply pointing things out.
This vision of augmentation is already seeping into our daily lives, becoming a collaborative partner to our senses. We see it in navigation apps that perceive traffic patterns miles ahead, or in language tools that translate conversations in real time, dissolving ancient barriers. The future is not one of overt robots, but of an elegantly integrated intelligence that helps us remember, connect, and understand the world with greater clarity.
For the pathologist, this promise translates into tools of almost unimaginable power. We are moving past just finding the "gorilla" and into the realm of understanding its intent and predicting its future path. AI will empower the pathologist to:
- Perform complex quantifications in seconds—measuring cellular proliferation or the precise density of an immune response with a superhuman consistency.
- Unlock prediction, using subtle morphological clues invisible to the human eye to forecast a tumor's aggressiveness.
- Enable classification on a new level, distinguishing between disease subtypes based on patterns in the tissue itself.
This is the ultimate goal: to equip the pathologist with a new set of senses. Senses capable of not just seeing, but of translating the silent, visual language of our biology into predictive, actionable insight. It’s not a perfect system, but perfection is a flawed goal. Instead, we should seek augmentation. I will gladly accept a reality augmented by a tool that is supported by evidence, validated by facts, and designed to help us all see more completely.
Human history is a blink in the eye of the cosmos. Our individual lives are but a fleeting glance. We will never see it all. But with the right partners, the right tools, and a willingness to look deeper, we can see more than we ever thought possible. We can see the universe in a pattern, a diagnosis in a cell, and a future of profound meaning hidden just beneath the surface of a first glance.
Author
Scott Kilcoyne
DigitCells Cofounder & COO