AI Predicted The Wuhan Virus Outbreak Before Everyone Else Did

As many of you are familiar by now, there is an outbreak of a new coronavirus that originated from Wuhan, China. It is a pretty serious issue as it seems that despite the best efforts by China, the virus has managed to spread to various parts of the world and there have also been reports of infections in the US.

Naturally, the World Health Organization and other organizations and governments around the world have since sent out warnings to the public about the virus, but it appears that thanks to the use of AI, a Canadian company by the name of BlueDot might have actually predicted the outbreak ahead of other major organizations.

BlueDot relied on an AI-driven algorithm that scours platforms like foreign news reports, animal and plant disease networks, along with official proclamations to make its predictions. Based on that, BlueDot actually managed to warn its customers to avoid places like Wuhan on the 31st of December, a week or so ahead of others like the WHO who sent out a public notice on the 9th of January, while the US CDC sent theirs out on the 6h of January.

The use of AI in the medical and health sector isn’t new, where we have seen how it can be harnessed to spot health issues before they might happen, or to spot diseases in patients that a human doctor might have otherwise missed.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical
Tags: AI (Artificial Intelligence), China, Health, Science