"collapsing" any uncertainty, but when an arm is passive, no observation is made,

Automated voice calls with health information are a proven method for disseminating maternal and child health information among beneficiaries and are deployed in several programs around the world. However, these programs often suffer from beneficiary dropoffs and poor engagement. In previous work, through real-world trials, we showed that an AI model, specifically a restless bandit model, could identify beneficiaries who would benefit most from live service call interventions, preventing dropoffs and boosting engagement. However, one key question has remained open so far: does such improved listenership via AI-targeted interventions translate into beneficiaries' improved knowledge and health behaviors? We present a first study that shows not only listenership improvements due to AI interventions, but also simultaneously links these improvements to health behavior changes. Specifically, we demonstrate that AI-scheduled interventions, which enhance listenership, lead to statistically significant improvements in beneficiaries' health behaviors such as taking iron or calcium supplements in the postnatal period, as well as understanding of critical health topics during pregnancy and infancy. This underscores the potential of AI to drive meaningful improvements in maternal and child health.

Malaria can be prevented, diagnosed, and treated; however, every year, there are more than 200 million cases and 200.000 preventable deaths. Malaria remains a pressing public health concern in low- and middle-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. We describe how by means of mobile health applications, machine-learning-based adaptive interventions can strengthen malaria surveillance and treatment adherence, increase testing, measure provider skills and quality of care, improve public health by supporting front-line workers and patients (e.g., by capacity building and encouraging behavioral changes, like using bed nets), reduce test stockouts in pharmacies and clinics and informing public health for policy intervention.

An artificial intelligence-powered digital health worker has been unveiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as its latest tool for disseminating reliable health information to the public. Originally developed by New Zealand tech company Soul Machines, with support of the Qatar Ministry of Health, the first version of the virtual health worker was used to combat misinformation about the pandemic. The new version – dubbed Florence 2.0 – covers a broader range of topics. Along with advice on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, it can also share advice on mental health, give tips to de-stress, provide guidance on how to eat healthily and be more active, and quit tobacco and e-cigarettes, according to the WHO. The chatbot can currently converse in English, with Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, and Russian to follow.

The World Health Organization, with support from the Qatar Ministry of Health, today launched the AI-powered WHO Digital Health Worker, Florence version 2.0, offering an innovative and interactive platform to share a myriad of health topics in seven languages at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Qatar. Florence can share advice on mental health, give tips to destress, provide guidance on how to eat right, be more active, and quit tobacco and e-cigarettes. She can also offer information on COVID-19 vaccines and more. Florence 2.0 is now available in English with Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi and Russian to follow. Florence has helped fight misinformation around COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Digital technology will play a significant role in achieving sustainable human development worldwide. In 2015, United Nations Member States set 17 goals, The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to provide a road map for the achievement of Earth’s peace and human prosperity by 2030. SDG 3 as one of the goals which is aimed at ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, will greatly benefit from the implementation of digital technology. With over a billion people, Africa can be better positioned to surmount its health challenges -especially regarding maternal and child health, infectious and non-communicable disease- using digital technology including artificial intelligence.Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as the automation of activities associated with human thinking such as decision-making, problem-solving and learning.1AI was first used in medicine in the 1970s when medical expert systems – based on Bayesian statistics and decision theory – diagnosed and recommended treatments for glaucoma and infectious disease.2 Progress in Bayesian networks, artificial neural networks, and hybrid intelligent systems in the late 1990s has scaled up bioinformatics research; thereby expanding uptake of Medical Artificial Intelligence (MAI).7 Global investment in MAI is projected to hit about $6.6 Billion by 2021 as it is anticipated that AI implementations in healthcare can help save $150 Billion in costs by 2026.8At present, a more meaningful applicat...

For PC Magazine's charter issue(Opens in a new window) in early 1982, the newly minted editor-in-chief and publisher David Bunnell flew to Seattle to interview a fresh-faced, 26-year-old Bill Gates, the president and co-founder of a little software company called Microsoft. Bunnell's goal with this exclusive interview was to understand the part Microsoft and its software played in the development of the groundbreaking IBM PC that was born less than a year earlier. After all, that IBM PC was the namesake of Bunnell's new publication. In the interview, the two discuss how much fun it was for Bill and his team to contribute to the IBM project, how gratifying it was to have been part of it, and how the IBM and Microsoft teams worked together to actually get it done. They even speak of shooting jokes back and forth via an early form of email used for communication between the two teams. Besides recalling many of the gritty details of how the software and hardware were developed together (it was a two-hour interview!),

Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala – On a recent afternoon, the COVID-19 vaccination centre in the heart of the Indigenous Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan was quiet. The health centre had a vaccine supply, but demand was low. The lack of coordination of a Guatemalan government-led campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy has resulted in the expiration of millions of doses across the country this year, critics have said, as more than half of the population remains unvaccinated. According to Juan Manuel Ramirez, an evangelical preacher in Santiago Atitlan, some community members have taken the vaccine, knowing it helps to protect against severe disease. But others have subscribed to conspiracy theories about its potential dangers.