In a new RTÉ documentary, Tomchak looks at how technological advances can help reduce pregnancy loss
Tomchak made the discovery while filming her documentary for RTÉ Game Changer: AI and You, which examines the increasing power and influence AI will have on our lives.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Tomchak said that during filming, she learned “if the advancements in AI had even been at the point they are today, it could have saved me possibly one miscarriage because it could have selected a different embryo for me”.
For years, embryologists have examined embryos under a microscope to decide which is the best to implant.
Now AI will be able to view embryos in minute detail and rule out those with flaws.
Tomchak, who has previously worked for the BBC and British Vogue, experienced several miscarriages before eventually becoming pregnant and giving birth to her daughter last year.
“It can takes years after a big loss to understand how you really feel or what happened. In my case, I was throwing myself into my work,” she says.
The latest AI advancements could have also helped her to reach the point “of not blaming myself” for what happened.
“It could have helped me to reach a diagnosis earlier, instead of spending years in the dark.”
Through speaking with experts, Tomchak learned IVF will now help save thousands of other women from similar pain.
The broadcaster says couples will soon be able to boost the chances of pregnancy by letting AI select an embryo for implantation.
“It will completely transform diagnostics by bringing more visibility and oversight to what’s happening with your body. IVF clinics have been collecting data since the 1990s so they have decades of information available to them.
“What AI can do is that it can join the dots and take in vast amounts of data in order to build a pattern and contextualise what is happening with your body.
“By identifying patterns, clinicians will be able to engage with data and use it in a really useful way.
“It will also help clinicians to offer people more personalised care.”
After her daughter was born, Tomchak says she stepped back from work to focus on her recovery.
“When I gave birth to my daughter I was already burned out.
“Usually you are about to climb a mountain of becoming a parent but I felt that I had already climbed Mount Everest to even get to that stage.
“I realised, I think, there was an additional layer [of struggle] for me in becoming a mother and I needed to take time out because I had been burned out on the road to even get to this point of becoming a parent.”
Now back in front of the camera Tomchak says she wondered “if I will still be able to do this”.
But she says: “Being a mother has made me a better journalist and a presenter.
“When you have given birth to another human being, it’s really hard to characterise how profound something like that is until it actually happens to you.
“And I also think on a practical level, when you become a mother, your brain changes and you start to think differently when engaging with people. It’s just an added layer.”
In the documentary, Tomchak examines the positive impact AI will have on areas such as health, education and climate action.
She will also examine the downsides of AI — including misinformation and deep fakes, the threat to jobs and the existential concern around Artificial Intelligence becoming more intelligent than us. And she will meet Ameca, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot.
‘Game Changer: AI and You’ is on RTÉ 1 on Thursday, November 16
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