Artificial Intelligence Goes to Work Against COVID-19

AI apps can help fight the coronavirus, but we’re still in the early stages of development

By Georgios Petropoulos (re-posted from Bruegel)

Artificial intelligence can help fight the coronavirus through applications including population screening, notifications of when to seek medical help, and tracking how infection spreads. The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered intense work on such applications, but it will take time before results become visible.

In the face of the coronavirus, digital technologies are vital for both social health and economic performance.

A digital response to the COVID-19 pandemic can take multiple forms and bring significant value. One important area in which there have been rapid developments in the last few weeks is new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for screening of the population and assessing infection risks.

Screening the population to identify who is potentially ill is crucial for containing COVID-19. In China, which was hit first, traditional infrared imaging scanners and handheld thermometers were introduced in multiple public locations, especially in Beijing. Chinese AI champion firms have now introduced more advanced AI-powered temperature screening systems in places including subway and railway stations. The advantage of these systems is that they can screen people from a distance and within minutes can test hundreds of individuals for fever.

In China and , new AI-powered smartphone apps are being developed to monitor individual’s health and track the geographical spread of the virus. Such apps aim to predict which populations and communities are most susceptible to the negative impacts of a coronavirus outbreak, to enable patients to receive real-time waiting-time information from their medical providers, to provide people with advice and updates about their medical condition without them having to visit a hospital in person, and to notify individuals of potential infection hotspots in real time so those areas can be avoided.