AI and COVID-19

Artificial intelligence could be in finding possible treatments and cures for coronavirus according to this NY Times article. AI could search through thousands of documents and research in the span of a few weeks, where it might take doctors or researchers years to read about. BenevolentAI, a startup in London, was able to identify a possible treatment for coronavirus symptoms called baricitinib, which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, but can also help boost your immune system from foreign activity, even going as far as helping prevent the virus from entering the body’s cells.

Although this AI isn’t producing a specific cure or method of treatment, it points doctors into the right direction of drugs that may possibly be used, and offers information on these drugs that could potentially help in fighting off the virus. The researchers stated that this drug would most likely not have been discovered as a treatment if not for the work of the AI.

I believe AI in the medical industry could lead to monumental discoveries in all sorts of treatments, not just coronavirus. There are thousands of medical journals and research out in the world, but not everyone can sit and read through them, so why not make an AI do it for you? The purpose of these AI’s are not to replace these researchers, but to aid them in any way possible.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/technology/coronavirus-treatment-benevolentai-baricitinib.html

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