Combating COVID-19 with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence

One of the major concerns for the world today is that the effects of the pandemic are intensifying and there is still no proper treatment to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19 so far. Therefore, it has become more important for researchers to look into different fields and devise technology to combat this health crisis. Countries around the world are working towards using the best available technology like Artificial Intelligence.

At a point where the effects of the virus are at its peak, digital technology can take various forms and plays a significant role in both the performance of the economy and healthcare of a country. Machine learning and Artificial intelligence have found their ways into the healthcare sector by providing the application in population screening and analysis of the risk involved in the spread of the virus.

"Infervis a startup in Beijing has developed tools to scan computer tomography (CT) for pulmonary problems. Pneumonia associated with respiratory diseases including coronavirus may also be identified in software. It is recorded that 34 Chinese hospitals used this technology to screen 32,000 suspected cases.

The Alibaba DAMO Academy, has trained an AI system to recognize coronavirus with an accuracy of 96%. System could process 300 to 400 scans in 20 to 30 seconds to

diagnose coronavirus, whereas same operation takes 10 to 15 minutes. 26 Chinese hospitals are benefitted to review more than 30,000 cases with the help of the system.”

- Council of Europe

Applicability of artificial intelligence during COVID-19

Artificial intelligence was initially used to extract information about the infected person, for testing of the newly infected person and precisely foreseeing the respiratory symptoms the patient might develop in the coming time. Several researchers believe that with the large sample data banks A.I would help to identify behavioral patterns of the patients out of which some beneficial information could be extracted helpful in faster testing of drugs and increasing the possibility of developing a cure. Since the new virus undergoes different mutation period, it is thus important that the developed treatment must serve the various forms of the virus.

According to recent studies, artificial intelligence proved effective in providing the test results of Coronavirus by just analyzing the chest image of a person and deliver quick results. The technology promised quick results and proved beneficial owing to limited testing kits in the USA.

AI has helped in such a crisis when the whole world is facing acute shortage of frontline workers by delivering on time medicines to patients who are forbidden to get in contact with any person. In such cases, AI robots not only provide in time medicines to the patients but also check the vulnerability of newly tested patients. At the backend, AI helps in deleting all the misinformation available on the internet, helps in the sanitization of infected areas, provide virtual designs for the types of equipment needed for the intense healthcare.

Considering the global crisis there are certain points which are of greater relevance and can cause security problems for many human operations. This includes problems such as data corruption and accuracy which the AI tools provide. There are a lot of security concerns related to AI and there is a hike in cyber-attacks. Every country is racing with time and even the slightest inaccuracy in data can lead to a complete delay in the progress made by the country. With an exponential rise in cases, no country would like to lag by a technological failure.