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For the first time in a pandemic, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a role like never before in areas ranging from diagnosing risk to doubt-clearing, from delivery of services to drug discovery in tackling the Covid-19 outbreak.

While BlueDoT, a Canadian health monitoring firm that crunches flight data and news reports using AI, is being credited by international reports to be the first to warn its clients of an impending outbreak on December 31, beating countries and international developmental agencies, the Indian tech space too is buzzing with coronavirus cracking activities.

CoRover, a start-up in the AI space that has earlier developed chatbots for railways ticketing platform, has now created a video-bot by collaborating with a doctor from Fortis Healthcare. In this platform, a real doctor from Fortis Healthcare not a cartoon or an invisible knowledge bank will take questions from people about Covid-19.

Apollo Hospitals has come up with a risk assessment scanner for Covid-19, which is available in six languages and guides people about the potential risk of having the virus. The Jaipur-based Sawai Man Singh Hospital is trying out a robot, made by robot maker Club First, to serve food and medicines to patients to lower the exposure of health workers to coronavirus patients.

This is the first time in healthcare that Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing are being used to create a Virtual Conversational AI platform, which assists anyone to be able to interact with doctors and have their queries answered unlike other search engines, which do not guarantee the authenticity of information, CoRovers Ankush Sabharwal claimed, while talking of its video-bot, which is likely to be launched soon.

Sabharwal told BusinessLine that answers to numerous questions have been recorded by Pratik Yashavant Patil, a doctor from Fortis Healthcare. In his AI avatar, Doctor Patil will bust myths, chat with you and will probably have answers to a lot of your questions.

Another start-up, Innoplexus AG, headquartered in Germany but founded by Indians, is claiming that its AI-enabled drug discovery platform is helping to arrive at combinations of existing drugs that may prove more efficacious in treating Covid-19 cases.

Its AI platform, after scanning the entire universe of Covid-related data has thrown up results to show that Hydroxycholoroquine or Chroloquine, an anti-malaria drug that is being prescribed as a prophylactic for coronavirus under many protocols works more effectively with some other existing drugs than when it is used alone, the company claims.

Our analysis shows that Chloroquine works more effectively in combination with Pegasys (a drug used to treat Hepatitis C] or Tocilizumab, (a rheumatoid arthritis drug) or Remdesivir (yet to be approved antiviral drug for Ebola) or Clarithromycin (an antibiotic). We are hoping to work with drug regulators and partners to test these in pre-clinical and clinical trials, said Gunjan Bhardwaj, CEO, Innoplexus.

To be sure, hundreds of clinical trials are currently under way with several cocktails of medicines for Covid-19 across the world, and some of these drugs were part of trials held in China and Taiwan. The World Health Organization (WHO) itself is monitoring a global mega clinical trial for testing drugs for Covid-19 called solidarity, which India decided to join on Friday.

Read more here:
Role of AI soars in tackling Covid-19 pandemic - BusinessLine

The agency is looking at how to best apply curated data sets to new use cases.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is closer to expanding its use of artificial intelligence and developing novel use cases.

In looking back on the early stages of the VAs newly launched artificial intelligence program, the department's Director of AI Gil Alterovitz noted ongoing questions about how to best leverage AI data sets for secondary uses.

One of the interesting challenges is often that data is collected for maybe one reason, and it may be used for analyzing and finding results for that one particular reason. But there may be other uses for that data as well. So when you get to secondary uses you have to examine a number of challenges, he said at AFCEA's Automation Transformation conference.

Some of the most pressing concerns the VAs AI program hasencountered include questions of how to best apply curated data sets to newfound use cases, as well as how to properly navigate consent of use for proprietary medical data.

Considering the specificity of use cases, particularly for advanced medical diagnostics and predictive analytics, Alterovitz has proposed releasing broader ecosystems of data sets that can be chosen and applied depending on the demands of specific AI projects.

Theres a lot to think about data sets and how they work together. Rather than release one data set, consider releasing an ecosystem of data sets that are related," he said."Imagine, for example, someone is searching for a trial you have information about. Consider the patient looking for the trial, the physician, the demographics, pieces of information about the trial itself, where its located. Having all that put together makes for an efficient use case and allows us to better work together."

Alterovitz also discussed the value of combining structured and unstructured data sets in AI projects, a methodology that Veterans Affairs has found to provide stronger results than using structured data alone.

When you look at unstructured data, there have been a number of studies in health care looking at medical records where if you look at only structured data or only unstructured data individually, you dont get as much of a predictive capability whether it be for diagnostics or prognostics as by combining them, he said.

Beyond refining and expanding these data applications methodologies, the VA also appears attentive to how to best leverage proprietary medical data while protecting personally identifying information.

The solution appears to lie in creating synthetic data sets that mimic the statistical parameters and overall metrics of a given data set while obscuring the particularities of the original data set it was sourced from.

How do you make data available considering privacy and other concerns?" Alterovitz said."One area is synthetic data, essentially looking at the statistics of the underlying data and creating a new data set that has the same statistics, but cant be identified because it generates at the individual level a completely different data set that has similar statistics."

Similarly, creating select variation within a given data set can serve to remove the possibility of identifying the patient source, You can take the data, and then vary that information so that its not the exact same information you received, but is maybe 20% different. This makes it so you can show its statistically not possible to identify that given patient with confidence.

Going forward, the VA appears intent on solving these quandaries so as to best inform expanded AI research.

A lot of the data we have wasnt originally designed for AI. How you make it designed and ready for use in AI is a challenge and one that has a number of different potential avenues, Alterovitz concluded

More:
VA Looking to Expand Usage of Artificial Intelligence Data - GovernmentCIO Media

Artificial intelligence (AI) is informing just about every facet of society, from detecting fraud and surveillanceto helping countries battle the current COVID-19 pandemic. But AI is a thorny subject, fraught with complex terminology, contradictory information, and general confusion about what it is at its most fundamental level. This is why the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), the social and computer science department of the U.K.s University of Oxford, has partnered with Google to launch a portal with a series of explainers outlining what AI actually is including the fundamentals, ethics, its impact on society, and how its created.

At launch, the A-Z of AI covers 26 topics, including bias and how AI is used in climate science, ethics, machine learning, human-in-the-loop, and Generative adversarial networks (GANs).

Googles People and AI Research team (PAIR) worked with Gina Neff, a senior research fellow and associate professor at OII, and her team to select the subjects they felt were pivotal to understanding AI and its role today.

The 26 topics chosen are by no means an exhaustive list, but they are a great place for first-timers to start, the guides FAQ section explains. The team carefully balanced their selections across a spectrum of technical understanding, production techniques, use cases, societal implications, and ethical considerations.

For example, bias in data sets is a well-documented issue in the development of AI algorithms, and the guide briefly explains how the problem is created and how it can be addressed.

Typically, AI forms a bias when the data its given to learn from isnt fully comprehensive and, therefore, starts leading it toward certain outcomes, the guide reads. Because data is an AI systems only means of learning, it could end up reproducing any imbalances or biases found within the original information. For example, if you were teaching AI to recognize shoes and only showed it imagery of sneakers, it wouldnt learn to recognize high heels, sandals, or boots as shoes.

You can peruse the guide in its full A-Z form or filter content by one of four categories: AI fundamentals, Making AI, Society and AI, and Using AI.

Those with a decent background in AI will find this guide simplistic, but its a good starting point for anyone looking to grasp the key points they will be hearing about as AI continues to shape society in the years to come.

Its also worth noting that this isnt a static resource the plan is to update it as AI evolves.

The A-Z will be refreshed periodically as new technologies come into play and existing technologies evolve, the guide explains.

Original post:
Google and the Oxford Internet Institute explain artificial intelligence basics with the A-Z of AI - VentureBeat

The list of concerns around the use of artificial intelligence seems to grow with every passing week.

Issues around bias, the use of AI for deepfakevideos and audio,misinformation, governmental surveillance, securityand failure of the technology to properly identify the simplest of objects have created a cacophony of concern about the technologys long-term future.

One software company recently released a study which showed only 25% of consumers would trust a decision made by systems using AI, and another report commissioned by KPMG International found that a mere 35% of information technology leaders had a high level of trust in their own organizations analytics.

Its a bumpy journey for AI as the technology world embarks on a new decade and key practitioners in the space are well aware that trust will ultimately determine how widely and quickly the technology becomes adopted throughout the world.

We want to build an ecosystem of trust,Francesca Rossi, AI ethics global leader at IBM Corp., said at the digitalEmTech Digital conference on Monday. We want to augment human intelligence, not replace it.

The EmTech Digital event, restructured into a three-day digital conference by MIT Technology Review after plans to hold it this month in San Francisco were canceled, was largely focused on trust in AI and how the tech industry was seeking to manage a variety of issues around it.

One of those issues is the use of deepfake AI tools to create genuine appearing videos or audio to deceive users. The use of deepfake videos has been rising rapidly, according to recent statistics provided by Deeptrace, which found an 84% rise in false video content versus a year ago.

Today more than ever we cannot believe what we see, and we also cannot believe what we hear,Delip Rao, vice president of research at AI Foundation, said during an EmTech presentation on Tuesday. This is creating a credibility crisis.

To help stem the flow of deepfakes into the content pool, the AI Foundation has launched a platform,Reality Defender, thatuses deepfake detection methods provided by various partners, including Google LLC and Facebook Inc. The nonprofit group recently extended its detection technology to include 2020 election campaigns in the U.S. as well.

As a generation, we have consumed more media than any generation before us and were hardly educated about how we consume it, Rao said. We cannot afford to be complacent. The technology behind deepfakes is here to stay.

AI has also come under fire for its use in facial recognition systems powered by a significant rise in the installation of surveillance cameras globally. A recent report by IHS Markit showed that China leads the world with 349 million surveillance cameras. The U.S. has 70 million cameras, yet it is close to China on a per capita basis with 4.6 people per camera installed.

The rise of AI-equipped cameras and facial recognition software has led to the development of a cottage industry on both sides of the equation. One Chinese AI company SenseTime has claimed the development of an algorithm which can identify a person whose facial features are obscured by a surgical mask and use thermal imaging to determine body temperature.

Meanwhile, a University of Maryland professor has developed a line of clothing, including hoodies and t-shirts, emblazoned with patterns specially designed to defeat surveillance camera recognition systems. All of that underscores the growing societal challenges faced by practitioners in the AI field.

The other complex problem affecting the AI industry involves cybersecurity. As adoption grows and the tools improve, the use of AI is not limited to white hat users. Black hat hackers have access to AI as well and they have the capability to use it.

Cybersecurity vendor McAfee Inc. has seen evidence that hackers may be employing AI to identify victims likely to be vulnerable to attack, according to Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at McAfee. Malicious actors can also use the technology to generate customized content as a way to sharpen spear phishing lures.

AI is a powerful tool for both the defenders and the attackers, Grobman said. AI creates a new efficiency frontier for the attacker. Were seeing a constant evolution of attack techniques.

The trust issues surrounding AI represent an important focus right now because the AI train has left the station and a lot of passengers are on board for the ride. AI has become a key element in improving operational efficiency for many businesses and a number of speakers at the event outlined how enterprises are employing the technology.

Frito Lay Inc. uses AI to analyze weather patterns and school schedules to determine when its corn chip inventory should be increased on store shelves. Global healthcare provider Novartis AG is using AI to support clinical trials and determine injection schedules for people with macular degeneration.

And when engineers at shipping giant DHL International saw how AI could be used to detect cats in YouTube videos, they wondered if the same approach could be taken to inspect shipping pallets for stackability in cargo planes.

These are small decisions were doing for load efficiency on over 500 flights per night, said Ben Gesing, DHLs director and head of trend research. At DHL, no new technology has been as pervasive or as fast-growing as AI.

Perhaps even more intriguing was the recent news that Salesforce Inc. has employed AI to undertake major research on protein generation. Earlier this month, Salesforce published a study which detailed a new AI system called ProGen that can generate proteins in a controllable fashion.

In a presentation Tuesday, Salesforce Chief ScientistRichard Socherdescribed how the company viewed AI as a double-edged strategy. One is the science fiction state, in which dreams of self-driving cars and big medical breakthroughs reside. The other is the electricity state, which uses technology such as natural language understanding to power chatbots.

AI is in this dual state right now, Socher said. At Salesforce, were trying to tackle both of those states. I truly believe that AI will impact every single industry out there.

If Socher is right, then every industry is going to have to deal with a way to engender trust in how it uses the technology. One EmTech speaker presented results from a recent Deloitte study which found that only one in five CEOs and executives polled had an ethical AI framework in place.

There are challenges ahead of us, said Xiaomeng Lu, senior policy manager at Access Partnership. We cant run away. We have to tackle them head on.

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As adoption of artificial intelligence accelerates, can the technology be trusted? - SiliconANGLE News

DMG Productions explores innovations in artificial intelligence for precision medicine.

JUPITER, Fla., March 26, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --During Q3/2020, Advancements with Ted Danson will focus on how technology is transforming precision medicine. Check your local listings for more info.

This segment of Advancements will discover how Ninety One Holdings, Inc. (Ninety One) aspires to advance precision medicine by combining state-of-the-art software technology with modern mathematical methods of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

"Ninety One is a cloud-native and AI technology company aspiring to lead the transformation into digital healthcare and Precision Medicine. It was founded on the conviction of fusing medical science with advanced mathematical modeling and big data technology. The first solution is an augmented intelligence, SaaS ecosystem automating and redesigning remote monitoring of implanted cardiac devices and wearables," said Dr. Eleonora Gashi, Co-founder and Medical Director at Ninety One.

Viewers will learn how Ninety One digitizes and transforms unstructured data from multiple sources into an error-free, efficient, and easy to use model. The show will also focus on Ninety One's ability to automate remote monitoring of CIEDs into a single-point, cloud-native application.

"Ninety One strongly believes that pursuing this mission with vigorous commitment and passion, while leveraging innovations in science, will have a material impact on disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention," said Richard Simon, producer for the Advancements series.

About Ninety One: Ninety One Holding, Inc. is a privately-held, data science and cloud-native technology company, focusing on clinical advancements in predictive analytics and Precision Medicine. Ninety One automates the collection of data and reports from implanted cardiac devices and wearables digitizes, structures, and analyzes them with applied data science in a single-point, easy-to-use interface for patient care and innovation in research.

Ninety One's Global team of data scientists, software engineers, and modern mathematicians utilize artificial intelligence on vast amounts of data produced by these devices to predict disease episodes and disease progression.For more information please visit https://www.91.life.

About Advancements and DMG Productions: The Advancements series is an information-based educational show targeting recent advances across a number of industries and economies. Featuring state-of-the-art solutions and important issues facing today's consumers and business professionals, Advancements focuses on cutting-edge developments, and brings this information to the public with the vision to enlighten about how technology and innovation continue to transform our world.

Backed by experts in various fields, DMG Productions is dedicated to education and advancement, and to consistently producing commercial-free, educational programming on which both viewers and networks depend.

For more information, please visit http://www.AdvancementsTV.com or call Richard Simon at 866-496-4065.

SOURCE Advancements with Ted Danson

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Discover Breakthroughs in Automation and Artificial Intelligence on an Upcoming Episode of Advancements Television Series - Yahoo Finance