The Collective and Augmented Intelligence Against Covid-19 alliance has developed an early version of a website aimed at sifting through the enormous amount of uneven information on the coronavirus.
Photo: EMAD MOSTAQUE/COLLECTIVE AND AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE AGAINST COVID-19 ALLIANCEAn alliance that includes an artificial-intelligence institute at Stanford has created a website designed to help global agencies such as the World Health Organization make better informed decisions on the shifting target that is the coronavirus pandemic.
Known as Collective and Augmented Intelligence Against Covid-19, the alliance’s founding members include The Future Society, a nonprofit think tank, and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or Unesco, is supporting the alliance by providing access to its network of scientific experts. The group is funded by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, which supports research into technology that can improve the quality of life.
The WHO intends to be one of the users of the website. Over time, access is expected to expand to include a wider group of policy makers and government officials.
Thus far the site, which is password-protected and not yet available to the public, focuses on three topics. The first is the contact-tracing through mobile apps and AI of people with Covid-19. The goal of contact-tracing apps is to track, notify and isolate people who might have been exposed to the virus. The next subject is how to address misinformation on the pandemic, and lastly to identify marginalized areas most vulnerable to the pandemic’s health and economic toll.
“We need to make sure that governments have a platform and knowledge to be able to make quick decisions,” said Bernardo Mariano Jr., WHO chief information officer, who said he would advise the alliance.
Access to data on the economic and social fallout, in addition to health data, is critical to making better policy decisions, he said. Insights from that data could help mitigate the effects of future pandemics, he said, adding, “We owe it to humanity to do way better next time.”
On July 6, the U.S. notified the WHO that it would withdraw from the agency.
The website draws information from 80 Covid-19 sources, the World Bank and WHO’s Covid-19 database among them, said Emad Mostaque, the alliance’s chief architect and the founder of stability.ai.
Information on the dozens of contact-tracing apps in use around the world is also included on the website. Understanding their different approaches could help policy makers establish ethical guidelines to protect privacy, particularly in developing countries, said Moez Chakchouk, Unesco’s assistant director-general for communication and information.
The website’s data is structured with easy-to-understand interactive graphs and visualizations, Mr. Mostaque said. It displays summaries of key questions and points of agreement and disagreement on each topic, he said. “We’re trying to extract key principles from all this data to help us make informed decisions,” he said.
The website also includes interviews with academic experts and U.N. officials. The interviews are transcribed using technologies such as natural-language processing, a form of AI.
An AI system eventually could respond to questions from users, Mr. Mostaque said, who would type their queries in natural language, such as, “What are the biggest concerns that experts have about contact-tracing?”
The website is also designed to help policy makers address inaccurate information on the pandemic, he said.
Write to Sara Castellanos at sara.castellanos@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"make" - Google News
July 21, 2020 at 10:00PM
https://ift.tt/2OLSubW
Data-Driven Website Aims to Help Global Agencies Make Decisions on Coronavirus Pandemic - The Wall Street Journal
"make" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WG7dIG
https://ift.tt/2z10xgv
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Data-Driven Website Aims to Help Global Agencies Make Decisions on Coronavirus Pandemic - The Wall Street Journal"
Post a Comment