The coronavirus (COVID-19) has ruled the global news and resulted in enormous disruptions as health organizations work to contain the spread of the disease. With over 660,000 confirmed cases and over 30,500 deaths worldwide and the World Health Organization (WHO) formally labelling the virus as a pandemic, the global health community is relying on new tools and technologies to fight against this virus and it leaned on its robust technology sector and particularly artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and technology to track and fight the coronavirus.
AI to recognise, track and forecast outbreaks
The better we can track the virus, the better we can fight it. The Canadian company BlueDot caught the virus early thanks to its AI algorithm, which studies more than 100 datasets—including news sources, airline ticket prices, demographic data, animal populations and climate data—to foretell and track the spread of viruses. The BlueDot’s AI warned of the threat (on December 31, 2019) several days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization issued their public warnings.
AI to help diagnose the virus
Artificial intelligence company, Beijing-based startup Infervision launched a coronavirus AI solution that supports healthcare professionals to detect and monitor the disease efficiently. It recognises lung problems on CT scans. Originally used to diagnose lung cancer, however, it can also detect pneumonia associated with respiratory illnesses like coronavirus.
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant’s research arm, DAMO Academy also developed an algorithm and they claim 96% accuracy at diagnosing the virus in seconds based on imaging.
LinkingMed, a Beijing-based medical data analysis company, released China’s first open-source AI model for CT image analysis using Baidu’s open-source deep learning platform, PaddlePaddle. This solution can pinpoint the illness in less than one minute, with a detection accuracy of 92% and a recall rate of 97% on test data sets.
These systems can diagnose coronavirus in 20 to 60 seconds, much faster than the 10-15 minutes it would take a doctor to go through the same number of scans
AI to help to screen
Baidu has developed various tools that are efficient in building awareness and screening populations, including an AI-powered, non-contact infrared sensor system that provides officials with high-speed multi-person temperature monitoring that can quickly recognise a person if they are suspected of having a fever, one of the main symptoms of the coronavirus. This technology is currently being utilised in Beijing’s Qinghe Railway Station to identify passengers who are possibly infected. In a minute it can examine up to 200 people without disturbing passenger flow.
Verily, an Alphabet company is developing a tiny, body-worn temperature patch that transmits data to a phone application to provide up-to-date notification of fever and support quicker diagnosis and treatment of a viral infection like the coronavirus.
AI to help sterilize, deliver food and supplies and perform other tasks
Robots aren’t responsive to the virus, so they are being deployed to complete various tasks such as cleaning and sterilizing and delivering medicine and food to reduce the amount of human-to-human contact. Robots from Blue Ocean Robotics use ultraviolet light to autonomously kill bacteria and viruses.
AI to help developing test kits
A South Korean biotech company Seegene used its automated assay development system to promptly develop and distribute testing kits for coronavirus based on the virus’ genetic makeup. The development with AI was a couple of weeks, without AI it would have taken two to three months. As a result, South Korea hasn’t suffered from the shortage of test kits as other countries are still struggling with.
AI to help drug development
Google’s DeepMind unit used the latest AI algorithms of its AlphaFold system and its computing power to understand the protein folding that might make up the virus, and published the findings to help others develop treatments.
BenevolentAI uses artificial intelligence systems to develop drugs that can fight the world’s worst diseases and is now supporting the efforts to treat coronavirus. This is the first time the company focused its product on infectious diseases. The company’s AI system identified 6 compounds that could efficiently block a cellular pathway that appears to allow the virus into cells to make more virus particles.
Baidu has made its Linearfold algorithm available to scientific and medical organisations battling the outbreak. The Linearfold algorithm, published in partnership with the University of Rochester and Oregon State University in 2019, is significantly quicker than traditional RNA folding algorithms at predicting a virus’s secondary RNA structure. This method can provide scientists with additional insight into how viruses spread across different species.
As you can see there are so numerous artificial intelligence and machine learning are used behind the scenes and it affects our everyday lives. Although Covid-19’s rapid spread globally is scary, the world is fighting the Coronavirus crisis and advanced technology can be a powerful weapon in this fight.
