How AI is making a positive difference in the COVID-19 pandemic

The novel coronavirus has consumed most all of the world, on personal and professional levels. It is scary and paralizing and… innovations are making it easier to handle the many obstacles and difficulties that accompany the COVID-19 pandemic. Artificial intelligence (AI) in particular is having a positive impact.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Industrial Vision Systems and I have been compensated for writing it. Rest assured that all opinions are my own.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

AI has different definitions, depending who you ask about it. While some professionals might say something is not truly AI, others might say otherwise. A universal feature, though, is that AI applies intelligence to tasks that typically go beyond human capabilities.

Common uses of AI are virtual assistants, such as “Alexa” from Amazon and Gmail’s ability to spot spam in emails by looking for patterns that signal an untrustworthy source. Both of these examples use machine learning. An exciting innovation is also AI-enabled machine vision systems, which is fast-forwarding smart manufacturing and more.

Uses of AI during COVID-19

There is a growing body of research on the coronavirus, and the data pool is growing beyond what humans can handle. AI can handle big data with ease, which is one of the ways that it is helping handle the pandemic.

Smart drones, robots, and cameras

Drones are becoming increasingly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their uses include tracking people not wearing facemasks in public spaces, as well as deploying medical samples in a particular area. Intelligent robots are also having a positive impact, from sterilizing isolation wings in hospitals to delivering food and other essentials to those who are in quarentine.

Machine learning systems, which use video and digital signal processing to collect data, is taking AI to the next level and helping keep people safe. One example is vision-guided robots. They are being used in hospitals in China to enforce social distancing regulations. Specifically, their purpose is to keep sick individuals away from others to contain the virus.

Big data

Big data and analytics provide insights into why the virus affects certain people more than others, what measures can contain the virus, and predictions for where the virus will spread next. Tracking the virus in this way helps researchers to deal with huge amounts of information. It’s more than humans can analyze alone, and can help research teams develop COVID-19 solutions faster than they could otherwise.

Healthcare chatbots

It’s understandable that healthcare systems have been overwhelmed lately. To help alleviate some of the burden from call centers, many organizations, including the WHO and CDC, are adding virtual healthcare assistants or “chatbots” to their websites.

These assistants can answer questions, provide informative updates, check for symptoms, and advise where to go for a screening or home-isolation. The AI language processing features can potentially reduce urgent care visits significantly, as well as reducing anxiety by providing factual, up-to-date information on the virus.

Risk calculation

When coronavirus patients are hospitalized, doctors often have a tough time predicting whether they will need a ventilator or intensive care. Thankfully, computer models are being created that calculate the risk of the patient needing a ventilator within a certain period, such as one week, so that hospital staff can organize and deploy their resources to fufill the future need.

The sophisticated AI system finds patterns that doctors cannot detect themselves, which makes it a very useful planning tool for hospitals. Doctors then know which patients to watch carefully and have the ventilator available when that person requires it.

AI in the workforce

The positive impact expands beyond applications solely related to the coronavirus. There is no doubt that aritificial intelligence will continue to have a dramatic effect on healthcare, for example. AI systems can help detect tumors in X-rays, for instance. lt can also spot genetic sequences related to diseases.

In other workplaces, the technology is sure to transform them in many ways. For example, AI can improve the hiring process by sifting through huge numbers of resumes and sorting them by the best talent for the job vacancy. AI can assess individuals by their skills and predict how well they would fit within the company culture.

In combination with machine vision systems, AI has even more cabilities. For instance, cameras in a meeting room can detect if attendees’ level of interest and mood. That information can help you determine how to make the meeting better for all the next time around for greater effectiveness. It can even lead managers to find new ways to hold meetings.

Essentially, the “machines” in machine vision see things and then act based on it. There are many industrial applications, including presence verification. This term refers to making sure that parts or components are in a particular object. For example, it can prove the existence of screws and washers for securing parts and that the product is in the package. The risk of missing failures is significantly reduced through this intelligent process that was previously done by humans, and it is more efficient than before too.

Measuring in machine vision can also confirm the accuracy of parts and components, without needing to be manually done. Get reliable measurement, such as the roundness of metal parts or the center coordinates of circular components, for excellent accuracy at extremely high speeds.

Final words on artificial intelligence

The capabilities of AI are sure to continue to improve and the applications will expand accordingly. From office environments to manufacturing facilities, there are many areas where artificial intelligence is already proving helpful.

The sophisticated technology is helping in many ways with the COVID-19 pandemic. I am thankful for it!

Top photo by annababii (Canva Free Content License).