As scientists make strides in finding answers about COVID-19, artificial intelligence has aided one Michigan State University researcher and his team in finding answers about the new omicron variant. The MSU researchers report omicron and other variants are evolving increased infectivity and antibody resistance according to an artificial intelligence model. Therefore, new vaccines and antibody therapies are needed, the researchers say. Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 evolves is essential to predicting vaccine breakthrough and designing mutation-proof vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments. In a recent study in American Chemical Society Infectious Diseases, Guowei Wei, professor in MSU's Departments of Mathematics as well as Electrical and Computer Engineering, and colleagues, analyzed almost 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences taken from people with COVID-19.

The Cotton Bowl is the first stadium in Texas to take a chance on the technology, which has the capability of disinfecting a 92,000 person stadium within 4 hours. DALLAS -- Stadiums are looking for ways to bring fans back to the stands in time for fall sports despite the coronavirus outrbreak, leading some Texas facilities to turn to drones for help. Cotton Bowl senior marketing director Julian Bowman describes the feeling of seeing the iconic Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas empty for the last few months, saying, "It is a weird feeling." "The Cotton Bowl opened up in 1930, so this was our 90th year and it was set to be our best year ever and unfortunately with COVID we are not able to do that," Bowman said. "It has really affected how we have been able to connect with our sports community and our entertainment community." The last event the Cotton Bowl was able to host was in January of 2020, before COVID-19 shut them down.

Previously used to tackle hospital acquired infections, the machines move through the airport terminals disinfecting high risk touch points like bathrooms and lifts.

A self-driving robot is now going rounds the lobby of SK Telecom, South Korea's largest mobile operator, to ensure social distancing and provide disinfectants. With cameras and an LED screen, the robot checks their temperature, dispenses hand sanitizer, disinfects the floor, and greets visitors to "take part in social distancing." Created by SK Telecom and Omron Electronics Korea, the robot provides an industrial automation solution and transmits data to its server in real-time, according to Reuters. It is powered by SK's fifth-generation (5G) technology. Korea has long been using robotics for tasks, including manufacturing and cleaning.

The system's calling card is a massive chip, measuring 8.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Putting the neural network on the chip, instead of dispersing it across a system, enables problems to be solved faster. Data travels a shorter distance, speeding up the processing of information. "You've got a chip that's about 60 times bigger than any existing chip. That raw capability is what we're trying to exploit," said Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for computing, environment and life sciences at Argonne. When the AI computer was installed in November, originally for cancer research, the lab determined its computing power was almost equivalent to that of a cluster of computers with up to 300 graphics chips, which are widely used for AI.

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory hope the system's calling card, a chip measuring over 64 square inches, will speed up drug discovery

The world's leading medical researchers are rushing to find a treatment for COVID-19 with the help of the most powerful and advanced supercomputers in the world. Researchers aross the globe are submitting potential treatments and cures to the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. The consortium, using a network of supercomputers and laboratotires, can run through simulations to narrow down or rule out drug compounds to use in a cure much faster than traditional methods. "It's a means by which one can begin to analyze tremendously complex or large problems," says Vice President of Technical Computing at IBM Cognitive Systems Dave Turek. "Pharmaceutical companies may have billions of compounds that could be potential drugs."

China is deploying robots and drones to remotely disinfect hospitals, deliver food and enforce quarantine restrictions as part of the effort to fight coronavirus. Chinese state media has reported that drones and robots are being used by the government to cut the risk of person-to-person transmission of the disease. There are 780 million people that are on some form of residential lockdown in China. Wuhan, the city where the viral outbreak began, has been sealed off from the outside world for weeks. The global death toll from coronavirus topped 2,100 people this week, with over 74,000 infected.

If a high temperature or the absence of a mask is detected, the robots send an alert to the relevant authorities. All data can be transmitted to a centralised control center for real-time situational response and decision making. Moreover, although these robots are self-driving machines, they can also be controlled remotely, thereby saving manpower by reducing patrolling responsibilities and preventing cross-infection. These next-generation 5G patrol robots have already been spotted at airports and shopping malls in the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xi'an and Guiyang.

To contain the spread of coronavirus, China launched a monitoring app where citizens are assigned a colour based on their health. Taiwan and Singapore used location tracking to enforce quarantines and identify contagion risk. Meanwhile, Kerala has launched an informational COVID-19 app. Canadian AI platform Bluedot was among the first to flag the outbreak in January, days before WHO's statement.