How China suppressed Covid-19 using artificial intelligence.
2020 and the passing year 2021 will go down in history as the years of a global crisis caused by the covid-19 epidemic. Of course, this is not the first global epidemic and it will not be the last. Humans have experienced four global epidemics throughout history, if they are Black Death (14th Century), Spanish influenza (1918), The global epidemics of HIV / AIDS (20th century), and SARS (2002–2003) have affected many parts of the world. Covid-19 stands out because of such high international tours.
It spread rapidly around the world at an unexpected time and as a result, many countries have completely shut it down. At the time of writing(07/06/2021), more than 173 million Covid-19 patients have been reported worldwide and more than 3.7 million have died.
Covid-19 is also different from previous epidemics. This is because it is the first time that health organizations and government agencies around the world have used big data and the emerging technologies of artificial intelligence to fight disease. AI has always been portrayed as a technology capable of adapting to our changing world, and this epidemic can be considered a prelude to AI.
An interesting case study of the use of AI to fight Covid-19 comes from China, the source of the virus. Despite the initial increase in the number of Covid-19 patients in China, China was soon able to control the spread of the disease and the rest of the world is still struggling with developing cases. If you look at the chart below, you will see a flat line for China, and to give a perspective, the United States and India, which have large populations, still see an increase in cases.
What action did China take to fight Covid-19?
Unlike other countries, China relentlessly used AI-enabled technologies to control the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic. Much of the focus has been on artificial intelligence to provide public surveillance to prevent the spread and, secondly, health care to provide faster diagnoses and treatments. This should come as no surprise, as China is already a leading market for artificial intelligence globally. According to one report, China’s leading news website xinhuanet predicts that China’s AI market will reach $ 11.9 billion by2023. (source-http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/08/c_138615098.htm)
So let’s take a close look at the various measures China took with artificial intelligence.
1. Mass Surveillance & Contact Tracing
It is a known fact that China does mass surveillance on its citizens without thinking twice about the privacy of the people. China has over 200 million surveillance cameras powered by AI-based face recognition technology to track its citizens closely. China has always been criticized globally for its widespread use of AI to control its citizens.
When Covid-19 attacked China,
The already established public monitoring system has proven to be very effective as it can be used to track a patient’s travel history, track contacts and make predictions about the risk to other people in contact with the patient.
China not only collected human tracking data, but also used this information to educate potential Covid-19 vulnerable people with the help of mobile app connections created with the help of companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.
This app gives users color codes based on their risk profile. People who are not at risk are given a green color, and people who have a travel history or are close to other patients are given a yellow or red color depending on the severity of the risk. Yellow indicates self-quarantine and red people need to go to the hospital.
This health code has now become a benchmark for China to allow its citizens to use public places and services. Many public places, such as train stations, offices, subways, and airports, are equipped with many health code scanners that direct people to yellow or red codes. China imposed rules allowing people to drive on the roads only if their health code is green.
Another very useful application for the Chinese people is the Baidu Map, which provides real-time information about high-risk locations and allows people to stay away from those areas. It informed users about how to navigate away from Covid-19 hotspots using GPS access data and medical data from health agencies.
It has become the norm for people to wear a mask during this period, which is essential to protect against the Covid-19 virus and prevent it from infecting others. Chinese AI companies Baidu, Megvii, SenseTime, and Hanwang Technologies have helped the government conduct facial recognition surveillance to identify people with or without masks. The system immediately issues a security alert if it detects a person who is not wearing a mask. These systems are also equipped with thermal scans to warn people of high temperatures in public places. Baidu’s observations at Beijing King’s train station established it in late January and found 190 suspicious cases within a month.
The most comprehensive data source for Chinese government agencies and healthcare technology companies comes from the mobile app “WeChat”. The mobile app was developed by the Chinese technology giant Tencent Group and currently has about 1.2 billion users. Tencent is the most valuable company in Asia with a market capitalization of $ 300 billion. WeChat is one of the primary sources behind all Covid-19 affiliate pursuits. When it was combined with great observation data, it made finding contacts an easy task.
2. Healthcare Services
The main challenge faced by health workers was the arrival of high-risk Covid-19 patients who began to arrive for diagnosis in the early days of the disease outbreak in China. It was a daunting task as radiologists had to perform thousands of manual scans to confirm the diagnosis. Prompt diagnosis and quarantine were essential to prevent the spread of ovid-19, but the diagnostic process was a barrier at the time.
Soon the Chinese AI companies like Alibaba, Yitu Technologies stepped in with AI-assisted diagnosis of CT scan images to automate the process with minimal radiologist intervention.
China began to use artificial intelligence to evaluate CT scans, marking a major turning point. These systems were built using deep learning and proved to be fast and highly accurate. By March 2020, more than 170 Chinese hospitals were using artificial intelligence programs, and there were 340,000 potential patients.
On the other hand, the Tencent AI Laboratory worked with Chinese health scientists to develop a deep learning model that could predict the serious morbidity of Covid-19 patients, which could be fateful. They have made this tool available online for high-priority treatment in advance. (Source-https://aihealthcare.tencent.com/COVID19-Triage_en.html)
Covid-19 is a new virus, so medical researchers knew nothing about it when it emerged. As soon as this was discovered, researchers around the world began studying the genes of this virus to create a diagnostic process that could open the door for vaccination. But such scientific research is not easy and requires extensive resources.
To speed up and streamline the research and diagnostic process, both Alibaba and Baidu have now given their proprietary AI algorithms to the medical fraternity. Baidu’s open-source AI algorithm is 120 times faster than traditional approaches to genetic studies, and Alibaba’s Linearfold AI algorithm is capable of reducing the time to study the coronavirus RNA structure from 55 minutes to 27 seconds. It is useful for rapid genetic testing. (Source-https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/how-next-generation-information-technologies-tackled-covid-19-in-china/ )
In such a crisis, drones are often useful for supplying or monitoring supplies. But automated vehicle and Chinese robot manufacturers Baidu, Neolix and Idriverplus have also joined the operation, providing hospitals with their own self-driving vehicles to supply medical equipment and food.
Pudu Technology, another company that made robots for the catering industry in general. EidriverPlus has provided automated vehicles to spray disinfectants in public places and hospitals for hygiene and has deployed their robots to more than 40 hospitals to assist health workers.
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