Hundreds of AI tools have been built to catch covid. None of them helped.

It never happened--but not for lack of effort. Research teams around the world stepped up to help. The AI community, in particular, rushed to develop software that many believed would allow hospitals to diagnose or triage patients faster, bringing much-needed support to the front lines--in theory. In the end, many hundreds of predictive tools were developed. None of them made a real difference, and some were potentially harmful.