How AI and High Tech Will Conquer the Coronavirus
AI excels at processing vast amounts of raw data, and then finding unexpected correlations and causes. This will allow scientists to eventually defeat the virus. Currently, the virus is always about 2 weeks to 1 month ahead of hospitals, hence ...
AI excels at processing vast amounts of raw data, and then finding
unexpected correlations and causes. This will allow scientists to eventually
defeat the virus. Currently, the virus is always about 2 weeks to 1 month ahead of hospitals, hence hundreds of thousands have needlessly died. Hospitals are constantly playing catch-up to the virus, with grim results.
But AI can allow scientists to:
** spot outbreaks in real-time, by tracking spikes in thousands of thermometers connected to the internet, giving scientists the ability to see hotspots as they form. Using AI, one can stop emerging hot spots
on the entire planet, preventing tens of thousands of needless deaths before they occur.
** Google searches for tell-tale words (e.g. fever, can’t breath, cough) can be detected
by AI by scanning the entire internet, to detect hotspots in real time of unusual or anomalous word searches.
** Facebook allows scientists to track superspreaders by tracing their network of friends and associates. Superspreaders, scientists now realize, are one of the main ways that the virus spreads.This can eliminate the time-consuming and inaccurate work done by contact tracers, who are often understaffed and ill-trained.
** Cell phone data can be used to track movements of millions of people, to
see who is practicing social distancing, and to see where people are migrating to.
One can then anticipate where entire populations are failing to heed warnings by scientists.
** Drones can be used to rapidly detect fevers in huge sports stadiums, concerts, parks, and beaches, with thousands of people, by using infrared sensors.
Furthermore, high tech has allowed scientists to map the genetic and molecular basis of the virus, giving us new ways to attack the virus as it multiplies.
Scientists can:
** develop new therapeutics which stop the virus from multiplying by identifying its choke points
when it reproduces. New drugs and therapies like convalescent antibodies, remdesivir, and dexamathasone are already saving the lives of thousands of people.
** track mutations among the 30 known varieties of covid 19, which is used to track the migration and evolution of the virus.
** create vaccines at an unprecedented rate, using RNA genomics, for billions of people.
Even if vaccines are only partially effective, scientists are amassing a stockpile of
new drugs and medicines which can attack the virus as it multiplies at the genetic and molecular level.
With advances in biotechnology, in the future, tiny super sensors will be distributed throughout the world, constantly detecting the presence of new viruses in real-time as they emerge. Within minutes, one may be able to see who is testing positive
for the virus at airports, restaurants, and stadiums where large numbers of people congregate. This may help to revive entire industries, which today are near collapse.
(Today, we tolerate the frustrating delays at airports caused by X-rays of our luggage, because we know the danger of a bomb. Tomorrow, we will tolerate the extra minutes taken at the airport to test for the virus, because we know the alternative.)