Last winter, a mysterious illness began spreading in Wuhan, China. The disease (COVID-19) was caused by a new strain, or type, of coronavirus. The flu-like infection can make some people severely ill and can even be fatal. Chinese authorities announced the outbreak on January 7. But a Canadian tech company called BlueDot had detected the virus a week earlier and alerted public health officials all over the world.
BlueDot uses a computer program driven by artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate outbreaks. The AI is capable of understanding various languages and can learn faster than the human mind. The system scans news sites in 65 languages for phrases like “fever” or “trouble breathing” to identify outbreaks. Then it tracks airline travel information to predict where the disease might head next.
The advance warning could help officials take measures to prevent a disease from sickening thousands. “We have reached the point where we can spread knowledge faster than the diseases can spread themselves,” says Kamran Khan, BlueDot’s founder.