AI and machine learning are playing an important role in fighting the pandemic brought on by COVID-19, with technological innovation and ingenuity being applied to large volumes of data to quickly identify patterns and gain insights. Efforts are underway to speed up research and treatment, and better understand how COVID-19 spreads. Chatbots employing AI are speeding up communication around the pandemic. One example is from Clevy.io, a French startup that launched a chatbot to make it easier for people to find official government communications about COVID-19, according to an account from the World Economic Forum. The bot is getting realtime information from the French government and the World Health Organization, to help relay known symptoms and answer questions about government policies.

Emergent Insight: It can be difficult to find bright spots in the midst of a global pandemic but the eruption of new technology solutions to problems associated with the battle against the virus is remarkable. It can take a tragedy to shine a light on the greatest needs of a society and now companies and innovators are identifying connections between problems and shortages and using their strengths to answer the call. This will make us better prepared for next global challenge. Original Article: Image above: HP (3D printed parts for a mechanical bag valve mask (BVM) that is designed for use as a short-term emergency ventilation of COVID-19 patients. This simplified design enables a robust and less-complex device, facilitating its rapid production and assembly.)

Suki, a startup that makes an AI-powered voice assistant for doctors, received two pieces of news from major clients less than three weeks ago. The first was that they'd need the product to accommodate telemedicine visits. The second was that they'd need autofilled clinical notes to quickly process patients who test positive for COVID-19 -- "Hey, Suki, write up a completed clinical note for COVID-19." The clients sent Suki their requirements and the data they'd gathered so far, and CEO Punit Soni called a meeting with his COO, head of customer success, product lead, sales lead and marketing lead. The meeting lasted 20 minutes.

Battling a pandemic as serious as COVID-19 requires drastic responses, and political leaders and public-health officials have turned to some of the most radical strategies available. What began with a lockdown of one city in China quickly expanded to the quarantine of an entire province, and now entire countries including Italy. While social isolation and curfews are among the most effective ways to break the chain of viral transmission, some health experts say it's possible these draconian measures didn't have to become a global phenomenon. "If health officials could have taken action earlier and contained the outbreak in Wuhan, where the first cases were reported, the global clampdown could have been at a much more local level," says Richard Kuhn, a virologist and professor of science at -Purdue University. The key to early response lies in looking beyond centuries-old strategies and incorporating methods that are familiar to nearly every industry from banking to retail to manufacturing, but that are still slow to be adopted in public health.