"I want an AI-powered society because I see so many ways that AI can make human life better. We can make so many decisions more systematically or automate away repetitive tasks and save so much human time".
If not the worst, the novel corona virus (COVID-19) is one of the most infectious diseases that has ravaged our green planet in the last decades. In just over three months since the virus was first identified in mainland China, it has spread to more than 90 countries, infected more than 185,000 people, and killed more than 3,500 people.While governments and health organizations are trying to curb the spread of corona virus, they need all the support they can get, particularly from artificial intelligence. While current AI technologies are far from replicating human intelligence, they are proving to be very helpful in monitoring the outbreak, diagnosing patients, disinfecting areas, and accelerating the process of finding a cure for COVID-19. Data science and machine learning might be two of the most effective weapons we have in the fight against the corona virus outbreak.
The war on the novel corona virus is not over until we develop a vaccine that can immunize everyone against the virus. But developing new drugs and medicine is a very lengthy and costly process. It can cost more than a billion dollars and take up to 12 years. That’s the kind of time frame we don’t have as the virus continues to spread at an accelerating pace.The AI looks at statements from health organizations, commercial flights, livestock health reports, climate data from satellites, and news reports. With so much data being generated on corona virus every day, the AI algorithms can help home in on the bits that can provide pertinent information on the spread of the virus.
Everyone are probably seen the COVID-19 screenings at border crossings and airports. Health officers use thermometer guns and visually check travelers for signs of fever, coughing, and breathing difficulties. Now, computer vision algorithms can perform the same at large scale. An AI system developed by Chinese tech giant Baidu uses cameras equipped with computer vision and infrared sensors to predict people’s temperatures in public areas. The system can screen up to 200 people per minute and detect their temperature within a range of 0.5 degrees Celsius. The AI flags anyone who has a temperature above 37.3 degrees. The technology is now in use in Beijing’s Qinghe Railway Station.
Alibaba, another Chinese tech giant, has developed an AI system that can detect corona virus in chest CT scans. According to the researchers who developed the system, the AI has a 96-percent accuracy. The AI was trained on data from 5,000 corona virus cases and can perform the test in 20 seconds as opposed to the 15 minutes it takes a human expert to diagnose patients. It can also tell the difference between corona virus and ordinary viral pneumonia. The algorithm can give a boost to the medical centers that are already under a lot of pressure to screen patients for COVID-19 infection. The system is reportedly being adopted in 100 hospitals in China. A separate AI developed by researchers purportedly shows 95-percent accuracy on detecting COVID-19 in chest CT scans. The system is a deep learning algorithm trained on 45,000 anonymized CT scans.
“As a technologist, I see how AI and the fourth industrial revolution will impact every aspect of people’s lives.”
