Here’s How Covid-19 is Driving Increased Adoption of Artificial Intelligence
Published on : Tuesday 07-04-2020
The adoption of Artificial Intelligence technology has surged exponentially amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The technology has already proved its potential by providing enhanced capabilities to businesses across various industries. Now during the outbreak, it is assisting doctors and medical staff by providing them the ability to tackle the pressing issues that emerged by the virus. Its subset Machine Learning is increasingly utilized in identifying patterns in historical training data. However, when it used intelligently, the technology has the potential to surpass humans not only through speed but also by recognizing patterns in that training data humans may overlook.
Artificial Intelligence is also playing a pivotal role in the time of a pandemic by diagnosing risk to doubt-clearing, delivering services, and drug discovery. In China, where the first coronavirus case reported, doctors use AI tools provided by Huawei Technologies Co. to spot symptoms of Covid-19 in CT scans. On the other hand, Tyto Care Ltd., in Israel, which offers on-demand medical exams, is using AI to provide clinical-grade data to doctors who work remotely for diagnosis.
Around the world, many governments and healthcare systems are leveraging AI-enabled sensors to support triage in sophisticated ways. For instance, Chinese tech giant Baidu has built a no-contact infrared sensor system to quickly recognize individuals with a fever, even in crowds. The company has also devised an algorithm that can examine the biological structure of the new coronavirus and deliver it to scientists working on a vaccine.
In Florida, Tampa General Hospital has implemented an AI system in conjunction with Care.ai at its entrances to discern individuals with potential Covid-19 signs from visiting patients. With the help of cameras positioned at entrances, the technology carries a facial thermal scan and collects on other symptoms like sweat and discoloration in order to prevent visitors with fever.
AI to Power Capabilities in the Fight Against Covid-19
In a shorter time, Covid-19 has become one of the biggest challenges to the current advanced world as it has spread across over 150 countries. In India, the virus has caused less comparatively than other countries like the US and the UK. But its impact on the country’s economy is evident as we are highly dependent on China for electronics and automotive parts.
Thus to combat the situation, several companies are coming up with numerous ideas and innovations. An AI startup CoRover that has previously developed chatbots for railway ticketing platform, has now built a video-bot, in collaboration with a doctor from Fortis Healthcare. Through this platform, a doctor from the health care company will take questions on Covid-19 from people.
Furthermore, a Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals has developed a risk assessment scanner, which is available in six languages and helps people with the potential risk of having the virus. In an effort to avoid doctors from contracting Covid-19, Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur has come up with a robotic solution that can serve food and medicines to patients.
Artificial Intelligence is also used for biometric identification systems to track the virus and maintain lockdown effort in areas affected by the pandemic.
AI Use for Improving Treatment
A Rockville-based startup Insilico Medicine has used AI to recognize molecules that could form the basis of an effective treatment against the Covid-19. According to reports, to identify thousands of new molecules that could be turned into potential medicines against the virus the company’s AI system took four days. In this context, Insilico says it will integrate and experiment with 100 of the most promising candidates, while issuing the full library of new molecular structures it has created for other researchers to use.
Therefore, Artificial Intelligence technologies are useful in diagnosing, predicting, and treating Covid-19 infections, while helping in managing socio-economic impacts around the globe. Considering these usages of AI, we could say the Covid-19 pandemic is bringing several new opportunities for tech companies, especially for MedTech businesses around the globe.