TIMELINE How AI supported the fight against COVID-19 As we emerge from the pandemic and adjust to the ‘new normal’, AI Magazine reflects on how AI-enabled technology supported the fight against coronavirus
DEC 2019 Early detection BlueDot used AI and its ability to continuously review data sets, such as news, airline ticket sales, demographics, climate data and animal populations. On 31 December 2019, BlueDot detected what was then considered an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, China and identified the cities most likely to experience this outbreak. 14
August 2022
FEB 2020
MAR 2020
High hopes for AI Just before the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, the press and the scientific community echoed the high hopes that data science and AI could be used to confront coronavirus and "fill in the blanks" still left by science.
Supporting efforts in China Known for its advances in the AI field, China were well equipped to utilise AI as it helped fight the pandemic. AI was used to speed up genome sequencing, make faster diagnoses, carry out scanner analyses or, more occasionally, handle maintenance and delivery robots.
