Use of AI & Data

Science in Fight
Against COVID-19

20th April 2020

Business Intelligence
Assignment
Sarthak Jasra
(2k18/MBA/721)
 Brief About Novel Coronavirus/COVID-19:
Novel Coronavirus comes from a family of Coronaviruses, which is a “Zoonotic Disease”,
transferrable from Animals to Humans. Categorised as a “Pandemic” by World Health Organisation.
COVID-19 is its Scientific Name, coming from SARS-COV-2.
Till Date (20th April 2020), 2.4 Million people have been Infected by the disease, causing a death toll
of 165 k and 633k people recovered till date. (Fatality Rate of more than 6%)

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Fight Against Coronavirus:

Artificial Intelligence cannot surely stop the Virus on its own, but it is used as a means to fight
against the Virus. For the First time in human history, Countries all across the globe are
implementing use of Artificial Intelligence to Monitor & Control the Virus.
In prior outbreaks, AI wasn’t that successful due to limited number of Data & Tools.
With the Advent of Social Media, the million posts associated with the coronavirus over different
media types such as: Facebook, Twitter & Instagram are allowing algorithms to generate close to
real-time information for public health officials to track its spread & help in its containment.

10 Ways on How Artificial Intelligence & Data Science is used to Monitor & Control COVID-19:

1. To Identify, Track and Forecast the Spread of the Disease: BlueDot Inc, a venture-backed startup
from Canada has managed to build a sophisticated AI platform that processes billions of pieces of
data to identify these outbreaks. This data can include the world’s air travel network, health
reports, and many others. BlueDot was the first company to published Scientific Paper on
Coronavirus in December,2019. Way before various Governments of countries came to know about
the Virus.

2. To help in Fast Diagnosis of Virus: Alibaba, a tech-giant from China has revealed that they can
detect Coronavirus in a mere 20 Seconds using Convolutional Neural Network (A Deep Learning
Technique). Using AI in CT scans can make it very much possible. The model has precision rate of
96%. The AI model was trained with the help of data from more than 5,000 confirmed cases found in
Wuhan and can identify patients with the deadly virus in CT scans, itself.

3. To process Healthcare Claims: Being a Health-care worker is not easy whomsoever department
you work for. A blockchain platform offered by Ant Financial (Formerly known as Alipay), a Fintech
Company based in China is assisting in speeding up the processing claims by reducing the number
of face-to-face interactions between patients and hospital staff.

4. Use of Drones to Deliver Medicines: One of the safest and the fastest methods of delivering
medical supplies during an outbreak is through drones. Terra Drone, a drone service provider based
in japan is currently using its unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver and transport medical supplies
with little risk between Xinchang County’s disease Control Centre and the People’s Hospital.

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 5. Use of Robots to Deliver Food Supplies, Medicines & Perform basic Tasks: Since Robots are not
susceptible to the Virus. Various Medical Companies, Hospitals & even Fast-Food Companies are
now using robots to do the Menial work which was earlier performed by humans.
Walmart, Biggest retailer of United States of America, is using robots to scrub its floors.
Robots in South Korea & China have been used to measure temperatures and distribute hand
sanitizer.
McDonald's have been testing robots to use as cooks and servers.
In warehouses operated by Amazon, robots were already used to improve efficiency. The outbreak
has made Amazon looking to increase the use of robots for sorting, shipping and packing.

6. To Assist in Development of Vaccination: AI’s predictive capabilities have already began

proposing existing drugs that might be useful in its cure. Google’s DeepMind division is using its
latest AI algorithms to study and understand proteins that make up the virus and are publishing
their findings to help in the development of treatments.

7. Making Protective Gear for Precaution & Protection: Sonovia, a startup based in Israel aims at to
arming healthcare systems with face masks made from their AI-based anti-pathogen, anti-bacterial
fabric that relies on metal-oxide nanoparticles.
Rokid Corp, a china-based startup is making Glasses which can detect fever as 88% cases have
shown to have fever. These glasses work along with the concept of non-contact thermal augmented
reality. The regular-looking glasses can detect anybody with a fever immediately sending alerts and
making digital records of the infected person.

8. Use of AI based Chatbots to Disperse Health Information: Chatbots have been chosen as a natural
choice for disseminating health information during the coronavirus crisis. Advances in Natural
Language Processing (NLP) have enabled the conversational AI technologies and widened their
reach. Siri, Alexa & Google Home can be used for this Purpose.

9. Use of Supercomputers to make Coronavirus Vaccine: Supercomputers of various major tech

companies like Tencent, DiDi, and Huawei (All Chinese Tech Giants) are being used by researchers
for the development of a cure or a vaccine for the virus. The Supercomputers can run faster
calculations and provide model solutions for necessary situations.

10. Use of Apps to Contain the spread of Virus: Apps Like: “Aarogya Setu” is used extensively in
India to provide information such as: Infected or Suspected Individuals in your near-by area. You
just need an active internet connection & use location services in order to use the Application which
can practically saved Millions of Lives in India Itself.

So, as you can see: Robots, Drones, Chatbots, Neural Networks from Deep learning, Regression
Models from Machine Learning & various other forms of technology are all used to fight the
Pandemic.
Innovation is coming from Big established Firms as well as from various upcoming Startups.

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