It looks like the year 2020 is all about the coronavirus. It is an everyday topic in news channels like CNN, BBC and the Dutch channel NOS. Virologists are currently the most invited guests in talk shows and everyone in the Netherlands knows Jaap van Dissel since the begin of 2020. This corona crisis has an impact on everybody’s life. Governments and companies doing the best they can to battle this virus. Next to that, Artificial Intelligence is being used to manage and fight the coronavirus (Marr, 2020). In this blog, a few examples of how Artificial Intelligence is being used to manage and fight the coronavirus is provided.
Firstly, researchers are doing research on a vaccine for the coronavirus. Normally, creating a vaccine takes several years, but now there is such a great demand for this vaccine, it is important to create a vaccine as soon as possible. Algorithms of the Chinese company Baidu and Googles Deepmind predicted DNA structures. These companies gave researches free access to those predictions which can be used to create a vaccine. This will probably reduce months of research (KPN, 2020).
A second example is an Artificial Intelligence solution that which detect and monitor the coronavirus more efficient. Everyone could imaging that the workload of the healthcare industry is overloaded due to the coronavirus. A company named Infervision created an Artificial Intelligence solution that detects and monitor the disease. Moreover, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, created an Artificial Intelligence system that can diagnose the coronavirus in a few seconds with a 96% accuracy (Marr, 2020).
Companies also have the responsibility to create an environment where their employees are able to keep the 1,5-meter distance. A Belgian infrastructure company called Infrabel did a pilot with Artificial Intelligence. Infrabel installed sensors which scanned rooms and hallways in the building permanently. This sensor can see when people aren’t keeping the 1.5-meter distance in a room and scan the hallways on one-way-traffic. After the pilot, they installed the system at 5 more offices throughout Belgium (Infrabel, 2020).
Mass surveillance is the last example of how Artificial Intelligence is used to manage the spread of the coronavirus. Counties like China, Singapore and South-Korea track their citizens by credit card data, location data, their body temperature and face recognition. It is questionable whether this is ethically justified (KPN,2020). I am curious about your opinion!
Of course, there are much more examples of how Artificial Intelligence is being used these days to manage and fight the coronavirus. Let’s discuss the potential of Artificial Intelligence to the fight against the coronavirus!
Infrabel, 2020. Infrabel zet Artificial Intelligence in om corona te bestrijden. [Online]
Available at: https://www.spoorpro.nl/innovatie/2020/05/26/infrabel-zet-artificial-intelligence-in-om-corona-te-bestrijden/?gdpr=accept
[Accessed 4 October 2020].
KPN, 2020. Hoe AI-oplossingen bijdragen aan de strijd tegen corona. [Online]
Available at: https://www.kpn.com/zakelijk/blog/hoe-ai-oplossingen-bijdragen-aan-de-strijd-tegen-corona.htm
[Accessed 4 October 2020].
Marr, B., 2020. Coronavirus: How Artificial Intelligence, Data Science And Technology Is Used To Fight The Pandemic. [Online]
Available at: https://bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=2022
[Accessed 4 October 2020].
Hi Jeroen, thank you for your informative and interesting blogpost! I find it very interesting that AI is used in so many different ways in order to fight the corona virus. Like you mentioned, in countries such as China citizens are tracked by credit card and location data. I think that in the Netherlands an app is created to track citizens as well. I read that the app lets people know when they have been in the same area (for instance restaurants and shops) as someone who has tested positive for the corona virus. This way these people can immediately get themselves tested. I think that it is a great way to keep track of the spreading of the virus. But as you said as well some people question whether its ethically justified.
A very intriguing read! It is a very relevant topic nowadays, so it is really interesting to read how AI helps in battling this virus. A couple of days ago, I came across an article about a Canadian start-up called BlueDot. This start-up had tracked the coronavirus and already alerted some of the government before the WHO released a word of warning. Over the years, BlueDot developed a platform build around AI, machine learning, and big data to track and forecast the outbreak and spread of viruses, including COVID-19. Besides COVID, they also identified Ebola and the Zika-virus. For the last one, they predicted the spread of the virus to Florida even six months before the official reports did. So, maybe we should check on their reports more in the future!