As the world has united against a common enemy – Covid-19, the industry often associated with moving fast and breaking things has begun moving fast to fix things. From Elon Musk promising to make ventilators to IBM providing access to supercomputers, and countless other examples, the tech industry has rallied brands big and small to combat the virus.

In the last month, the tech industry has united to extend their funds, their production capabilities and even new technologies to help face this global threat. While some of the solutions were merely short-term fixes for immediate problems, many will undoubtedly have long-lasting effects on how we will find, diagnose and care for the sick. Already, AI has proved effective at tracking viral spread, managing patient requests and improving patient experience.

Tracking and analysis
This global pandemic is by no means the first instance where AI has been used to analyze, track, predict and combat a threat. It is however, the biggest and most global example of its use in tracking illness. China quickly mobilized a range of technology including thermal scanners to identify individuals with high body temperatures to extrapolate and feed their AI tracking. In Canada, AI-powered interventions company BlueDot, warned of the emerging threat even before the Centers for Disease Control did. The algorithm sifted through reams of information ranging from news media reports to animal disease networks to identify a “flu-like outbreak.”

Source: medcitynews.com