On a black screen facing an operating room, Dr. Michael Bernard watched a storm of squiggly lines flashing across the monitor: the electric chaos of a patient’s irregular heartbeat.

The patient had atrial fibrillation, a disordered heart rhythm that can cause fatigue, shortness of breath and more serious problems over time. Years ago, treating it required open-chest surgery. Now, through a vein in the leg, a thin catheter about the size of a spaghetti noodle snakes toward the heart, its tip burning tiny scars at a doctor's command into tissue to block misfiring electrical signals and restore a steady beat.

This time, Bernard wasn’t relying on instinct alone. He was using an artificial intelligence–powered mapping system designed to read the heart’s electrical patterns and highlight the p

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