Cartoon image of a person using a smartphone to photograph a rash on their hand.
Google developed a tool to help people identify skin conditions. | Image: Google

Google’s latest foray into health care is a web tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people identify skin, hair, or nail conditions. The company previewed the tool at I/O today, and it says it hopes to launch a pilot later this year.

People can use their phone’s camera to take three pictures of the problem area — for example, a rash on their arm. They’ll then answer a series of questions about their skin type and other symptoms. The tool then gives a list of possible conditions from a set of 288 that it’s trained to recognize. It’s not intended to diagnose the problem, the company said in a blog post.

Image: Google

The Google tool asks people to take three photos of a skin problem, and then it offers…

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