In late January, more than a week before Covid-19 had been given that name, hospitals in Wuhan, China, began testing a new method to screen for the disease, using artificial intelligence. The plan involved chest CTs--three-dimensional scans of lungs displayed in finely detailed slices. By studying thousands of such images, an algorithm would learn to decipher whether a given patient's pneumonia appeared to stem from Covid-19 or something more routine, like influenza. In the US, as the virus spread in February, the idea appeared to hold promise: With conventional tests in short supply, here was a way to get more people screened, fast. Although various diagnostic algorithms have won approval from the US Food and Drug Administration--for wrist fractures, eye diseases, breast cancer--they generally spend months or years in development.

NASA'S Planetary Defense Coordination Office uses the Catalina Sky Survey facility in Tucson,... [ ] Arizona, to catalog space objects Even in this age of high-speed data analysis, a keen human eye normally can't be beaten when poring over images of potential asteroidal impactors. But Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could soon change all that. The El Segundo, Calif.-based Aerospace Corporation is now testing A.I. software designed to help astronomers speed up the process of identifying and tracking threatening Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office already uses numerous telescopes to find and monitor NEOs that might have the potential to impact Earth. But the non-profit Aerospace Corporation's A.I. team is working with NASA on implementing software dubbed NEO AID (Near-Earth Object Artificial Intelligence Detection) to differentiate false positives from asteroids and comets that might be real threats.

NASA'S Planetary Defense Coordination Office uses the Catalina Sky Survey facility in Tucson, Arizona, to catalog space objects Even in this age of high-speed data analysis, a keen human eye normally can't be beaten when poring over images of potential asteroidal impactors. But Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could soon change all that. The El Segundo, Calif.-based Aerospace Corporation is now testing A.I. software designed to help astronomers speed up the process of identifying and tracking threatening Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office already uses numerous telescopes to find and monitor NEOs that might have the potential to impact Earth. But the non-profit Aerospace Corporation's A.I. team is working with NASA on implementing software dubbed NEO AID (Near-Earth Object Artificial Intelligence Detection) to differentiate false positives from asteroids and comets that might be real threats.

As the Brett Kavanaugh hearings dominated the news cycle in September, Silicon Valley–based mental health startup Ginger found its app buzzing with sexual assault survivors who were reporting feelings of heightened anxiety, anger and powerlessness. It scanned the words users typed to their therapists in a bid to better understand the patient's situation and then recommended how the health professionals might intervene. The therapists were then able to provide coping strategies based on an individual's needs. For Ginger co-founder Karan Singh, the reason for developing the app was personal. After learning of a friend's suicide attempt, Singh decided to help develop better resources for people suffering from depression.

Employees at FedEx in the U.S., Telefónica in Spain and the National Health Service in the U.K. opened their work computers one day in May 2017 to find they no longer had access to thousands of crucial documents. A message appeared demanding payment in bitcoin to have them restored. The ransomware attack known as WannaCry afflicted more than 200,000 people in 150 countries, according to Europol, and was the largest of its kind in recent history. The threat of this sort of crippling data security breach has tech giants turning to artificial intelligence for solutions. As online hackers increasingly use advanced technology for penetrative attacks, the companies that host our private information also are engaging the most advanced systems available in a bid to protect us.