The role of artificial intelligence in the fight against Covid-19

In early January of 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first warnings about the potential spread of a flu-like pandemic. Days later, the World Health Organization notified the public of the dangers of the novel coronavirus Covid-19, and warned about the possibility of a dangerous outbreak. Despite the far-reaching resources of both the CDC and the WHO, a Canadian health start-up called BlueDot had already broken news of the threat to its users. It was able to do this using artificial intelligence and machine learning to spot patterns and track the spread of the virus. BlueDot's tracking system was the first of many AI-influenced technologies that are now being employed to fight the first global public health crisis of the decade.