Prof. Young Jun Chai is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Seoul National University Boramae Medical Center. His professional interest is endocrine surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands; his academic interest is the molecular biology of thyroid cancer. It is such an honor for AOT to interview Prof. Chai on his article “Artificial intelligence for thyroid nodule ultrasound image analysis” contributing to the focused issue, and his research and opinions in this field.