Humanity's fight against Covid: The promise of artificial intelligence

Few know that Coronavirus and its allied disease Covid-19 was first discovered by a data-mining program. HealthMap, a website run by Boston Children's Hospital, raised an alarm about multiple cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China, rating its urgency at three on a scale of five. As it progressed, Governments struggled to deal with the unprecedented crisis on multiple fronts and were forced to look at innovative ways to augment their efforts; presenting an opportunity to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI was used in varied settings including drug discovery, testing, prevention and overcoming resource constraints, and its success opened a whole new door of possibilities. Here's a look at some of the most intuitive, innovative and advantageous uses of the technology during COVID-19, outlined under the four categories of diagnosis and prognosis, prediction and tracking, patient care and drug development: In Xinchang County, China, the drones delivered medical supplies to centers in need, and thermal sensing drones 14 identified people running fever, potentially infected with the virus.