The Batch: AI Versus Coronavirus, Quantum Neural Networks, Workers Prepare for Job Losses, Translating Cuneiform

Prediction: Health surveillance companies spotted Covid-19 in late December by parsing news reports, social media, and official statements, but predicting how the epidemic will spread is harder. AI companies could do more if they were allowed access to patient records, but that would require working through thorny privacy issues. The U.S. recently finalized new rules for giving patients more control over their health data. What's missing is an option for patients to share their data securely with researchers. Diagnosis: A number of tools analyze scans of patients' lungs to detect coronavirus infections.