AI Weekly: AI joins the fight against diseases like coronavirus

In light of the rising death toll from the coronavirus, which this week spread to the U.S. and was declared a health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), it's worth looking at AI's role in curbing the spread of other diseases. Algorithms have not only informed superior intervention and prevention strategies, they've helped optimize the allocation of resources to fight the spread of infection. Algorithms have even detected preliminary signs of an outbreak well before it came to human pathologists' attention. In a study back in 2014, investigators used statistical modeling to evaluate the testing and treatment of HIV in the U.K. and locate people living with the virus who weren't aware of their disease status. The team found that -- even without behavioral changes on the part of people living with HIV -- their approach could reduce new infections by 5%.