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Covid-19: Artificial Intelligence Fighting The Pandemic Terror

Covid-19:  Artificial Intelligence Fighting The Pandemic Terror

Thursday April 23, 2020,

9 min Read

COVID-19  is the disease which is caused by the virus and has reached to every corner of the world. Because of this disease the world has left in turmoil. Day by day the number of cases is increasing and the figure has reached the million and the number of deaths is more than 50000 worldwide. This is the situation in which every person is going to affect directly or indirectly in one way or another.


Because of the implementation of lockdown, the closure of borders, and the limitation of movements and other steps are being implemented to control the virus all over the world. The operating environment of law force agencies and the security services has been assigned the duty to protect the public from the virus is suddenly becoming more difficult for them. The different agencies, cops and other people who are playing a very crucial role in protecting the public and taking care of their safety by maintaining the law and order are finding themselves in the thrust of the unparalleled situation. With the help of technology, many agencies and entities are turning to AI to supporting unique and innovative ways by increasing the surveillance, monitoring, and detection of the capabilities that are on their priority lists. The authorities have decided on the attachment of facial recognition cameras to get the man traveling from Hangzhou and have affected areas through which he has traveled. After returning home, their local police were instructed to be self-quarantine or take precautions so that it should not spread to the family members. Cops in SPAIN and CHINA had started using different technologies such as broadcasting the audio messages, videos, and in many different ways to the public and encouraging them to stay at home.


People who're going to HONG KONG, at the airport they may have been receiving the monitoring bracelets which alert the government in the event that they break the self-quarantine by means of leaving their home. In the UNITED STATES, the surveillance business enterprise had announced that they're having the thermal cameras that can hit upon fevers while in THAILAND, officers are already piloting a bio-metric screening machine by means of the usage of the fever detecting cameras within the airport.


Isolated instances\ new norm?

Due to the rapid increase in the number of cases and deaths. Countries are doing lock down these are not the proper example of technical innovation. In the coming days, we will more likely to see the use of AI come to forward.


AI can play a very crucial role in seizing the reins in the crisis and can secure the officers and officials from the virus. Still, we mustn't forget the fact that its use can ruin and raise very serious human concerns if not deployed with proper guidelines.

On March 19, INTER-AMERICAN human right commission and representative of media for the organized security in Europe had issued a combined statement about the promotion and information flow during the pandemic and especially took note of the thriving use of the Surveillance technology to measure the spread of COVID-19.


They said that there is more need for active participation to confront the virus but at the same time, it gives stress to them that these types of tools are limited and we cannot use these types of tools beyond their time limit and for different purposes. And the individual rights to privacy, non-discrimination and the protection of the sources and other freedom are being protected rigorously. This is one of the necessary steps that we need to take to stop the virus.


Ways To Responsibly Use Ai To Fight The Corona virus Pandemic:

● Data automation:

While some countries are following the old school method of tracking and collecting data individually. Countries like Austria, Italy, the UK are using data automation to track, collect the movement of people in a more general and managed way.


In an attempt to help people to track their health status, Google also comes up with the google information feed about Corona virus.


Statistics of humans’ action and the population density maps has been recently researched at the Harvard University of public health and at the National Tsing Hua University. All this researches is being done by Facebook. It helps them to unfold the virus which is spreading fast all over the world. 

The social community is also supporting partners to recognize how people are speaking about the issue online, through tools inclusive of Crowd tangle, which aggregate social-media posts.


● By finding the right drugs:


A British startup, Exscienta in the earlier part of the year 2020, was the first-ever company that was able to find an AI-based drug molecule to the individual trail. It took them years to research the AI-designed drug module and only 12 months to design the algorithm.


Now the question is, how AL could do magic in the field of finding the right drug. As said by Emeritus professor of sociology, Prof Andrew Hawkings, National University of Australia, AL could be more help human trail in multiple ways like:


● Develop vaccines and scanning through the previous module and take the help of Biotech science to fight the coronavirus for both the present and future conditions.


● Develop antibodies and vaccines to fight infectious diseases.

● Scanning through the existing drug to find whether drug repurposed or not.


According to Forbes, it is stated that AI and records science procedures can help us fight infectious sicknesses in a more powerful way.


● By design robots cleaners:

A professor from Bristol University, Sabina Hauert tells the BBC news that AI can make our daily lives less difficult by the use of robots. The robot cleaners could clean the hospitals, or they might also make their presence to be had for consultations, remote meetings, and to connect to loved ones as well.


Till now Many robots are serving as a nurse, Food supplier and can be used to assist and feed patients in isolation wards.


● By fighting misinformation:

However misinformation and rumors may cause a huge loss and at the moment, there has been no detailed information about how a piece of unsustainable news remains on the platform like Google and Facebook.


Youtube, meanwhile making use of its homepage to direct its audience to World health organizations and other generic sources of information.


On the other hand, Google confirmed that its team is working around the clock to safeguard its audience from malware, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. Also, an SOS alert pops up alongside the web page for more statistics about the virus and preventive measures one wishes to take.


● Knowledge sharing and open data access:

The secretary of UNITED NATIONS GENERAL had said that “global action and solidarity are very crucial and will not only help us to fight alone with the virus”. To fight against the COVID-19, the use of AI had applied on many levels, by law enforcement and the security services.

Different agencies and stakeholders including civil organizations, public and different entities should collaborate with each other. The case and data which uses AI should be shared and transparency promoted.



● Time Limitation:


The end of this virus seems to be very far from the current point of time. But when it seems to come towards an end, the national authorities would need a scale back their newly acquired capabilities for monitoring after this pandemic. Recently, it has been noticed that the temporary measures have a long-lasting emergency as this new emergency was hidden on the horizon. Exceptional capabilities cannot be typical or standard amongst the sensation, we need to take care of this.


The end of this virus seems to be very far from the current point of time. But when it seems to come towards an end, the national authorities would need a scale back their newly acquired capabilities for monitoring after this pandemic. Recently, it has been noticed that the temporary measures have a long-lasting emergency as this new emergency was hidden on the horizon. Exceptional capabilities cannot be typical or standard amongst the sensation, we need to take care of this.


Coming in way while the use of technologies. It is evident to navigate the potential reduction in these technologies. By identifying the practical cases and by using the principle use of AI, UNICRI has set up the global stage for law enforcement, fostering discussions. Because of AI a lot of long work has been done through this forum, and still, there is a long way to reach.


To track the spread of coronavirus, the data which is personally collected cannot be used for a different purpose. A huge amount of personal and medical data that should only be used for public health reasons will be confirmed by the higher level of authorities. Under the EUROPEAN UNION’S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION, this method had already implemented in EUROPE.


Concluding Essence:

Because of the COVID-19, many new uses of AI have come in front of the government and as well as cloud architecture for the emergency setup and the spread of the virus. It is very important to consider the fundamental rights, principles, and respect for the law and society. The potential and positive power of the AI is real.


AI will help us to save lives and to fight against the COVID-19 which will lead to the slow spread of the diseases. But in this dreadful situation, we need to stay calm and take precautions and be responsible for the use of AI.


Now it is time to make a principle all over the country for AI.