As the world battles a pandemic at a scale never witnessed before, scientists and technocrats are pondering over how technology can play its role in predicting, containing and treating any further cases like that of Coronavirus. The Coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by a storm and has brought spotlight on the unpreparedness of today’s society against any further outbreak of such biological crisis. Bill Gates had once said in a recent conference that the world is largely unprepared for a pandemic outbreak and the same has been proved to be true. However, in the coming times, it may be possible for technology to be our biggest ally in the war against pandemics and Artificial Intelligence may turn out to be the strongest warrior in our battalion.

Imaging and prediction of symptoms

Though it is a much controversial topic today and some thought leaders also equate it to Orwellian dystopia, but surveillance systems in malls, hotels, hospitals and other places of public gathering can use facial recognition and temperature measurement techniques to identify symptoms of a disease in individuals. At such places, it may get challenging for a government official to be physically present and check all the people at the spot. However, thermal imaging systems in overhead cameras and helmets of police officials can help to silently identify people with symptoms and quarantine them for medical inspection.

AI systems for movement tracking

People who would have been identified and confirmed as showing symptoms of a pandemic will be treated in quarantine, while government authorities will go through their travel history. An AI system will analyze the social media updates, locations of financial transactions and check-ins made online to create a travel history map of the patient. This will be instrumental in identifying the regions where the patient had traveled, thereby initiating medical checkups in those regions too and accordingly sounding a medical alert as required.

Algorithms for drug development

AI systems have already been deployed to identify new drugs that can be developed to counter the threats of diseases that are incurable today and to which human scientists have no answer. Google’s DeepMind team has already used its latest AI algorithms to analyze the proteins that make up the coronavirus and how a new drug must be developed to address the growing pandemic. Even Benevolent AI is suggesting new drug formulae using AI systems and has also suggested some drugs that can be instrumental in fighting coronavirus.

Drones for drug delivery

Going forward, if the scale of Coronavirus or any other pandemic grows out of manageable proportions, then drug suppliers will need to ship drugs to far off locations. This is where drones can be saviors as they will be able to ship consignments of drugs at a faster speed without the impediments that vehicles face on the roads. Drones can also be used to patrol public places and use thermal imaging to identify people showing the dreaded symptoms.

The world, at large, must try to avert any incidence of any pandemic. However, in case any situation arises, technology will be our reliable ally in predicting pandemic beforehand and then autonomously work to beat the disease at its game by finding innovative ways to contain and treat the disease.