DUBAI: Robots can act as an interface between a doctor and a patient wherein they can carry out diagnostic and treatment processes, reducing the human contact and risk of transmission of infection during the coronavirus pandemic, an expert in the field of Robotics has said. Bartlomiej Stanczyk, Robotics Engineer with ACCREA Engineering in Germany, was speaking during an e-discussion on the the topic- Using Artificial Intelligence to Tackle Epidemics: The COVID-19 Model. The event, organised by the Abu Dhabi-based TRENDS Research & Advisory, brought together leading experts from around the world who deliberated on the importance of artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and other technologies in the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 that has infected more than 3.8 million people and killed over 260,000 people across the world. Stanczyk said that robots could help doctors keep a safe distance from the patient by using probes and other remote medical equipment. "We aim to build a completely autonomous diagnostician through robotics, thus enabling the transfer of the skill from the human doctor on the machine carrying out the treatment," he said.

NEW DELHI: From diagnosing diseases to categorising huskies, Artificial Intelligence has countless uses but mistrust in the technology and its solutions will persist until people, the "end users", can fully understand all its processes, says a US-based Indian scientist. Overcoming the "lack of transparency" in the way AI processes information - popularly called the "black box problem" - is crucial for people to develop trust in the technology, said Sambit Bhattacharya who teaches Computer Science at the Fayetteville State University "Trust is a major issue with Artificial Intelligence because people are the end-users, and they can never have full trust in it if they do not know how AI processes information," Bhattacharya told . The computer scientist, whose work includes using machine learning (ML) and AI to process images, was a keynote speaker at the recent 4th International and 19th National Conference on Machines and Mechanisms (iNaCoMM 2019) at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi. To buttress his point that users don't always trust solutions provided by AI, Bhattacharya cited the instance of researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in the US who applied ML to a large database of patient records containing information such as test results and doctor visits. The'Deep Patient' software they used had exceptional accuracy in predicting disease, discovering patterns hidden in the hospital data indicating when patients were on the way to different ailments, including cancer, according to a 2016 study published in the journal Nature.

By Tushar Kaushik IN YOUR CART AI-enabled shopping assistant Spod can suggest products based on customer's age, gender. At an office in HSR Layout, a boxshaped robot, mounted with a tablet, moves along the office floor while avoiding objects. As it detects a human face, it stops to greet and introduce itself: "Greetings, I'm Spod. I'm here to help you shop." Spod is an artificial intelligence-enabled robotic shopping assistant that visitors to supermarkets may well see in near future.