Best AI Practices and Use Cases

AI has the potential to accelerate scientific discoveries through faster data processing. The scientific and research communities hope to fill gaps in their understanding of COVID-19 research by utilizing intelligent AI algorithms and machine learning.

The usual pace of drug development is too slow to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus BenevolentAI, a UK Machine learning-based drug discovery platform, has been developed to rapidly identify already existing drugs that demonstrate anti-covid activity. This platform identified promising candidates that might inhibit covid infection: Baricitinib - a drug available on the market and approved for rheumatoid arthritis. Baricitinib is now in its late stage of clinical trials as a potential treatment of COVID-19.

Another essential benefit of AI-based algorithms during the pandemic has been Agri-tech developments that increase food security. The pandemic situation has revealed a weakness in food supply chains worldwide and in the UK. Start-up Mantle Labs is aiming to help UK farmers and retailers improve crop-monitoring by AI-based analysis of satellite images of farmlands.

Mobile applications have rapidly taken on a pivotal role in public health management. The Babylon app, for example, developed by the UK company Babylon Health, is an AI-based alternative chatbot acting as a medical helpline. It aims to decrease pressure on healthcare helpline systems as well as provide more accurate patient diagnoses. This app performs a range of TeleHealth functions: automotive symptom checker, fully-qualified consultant therapist, and so on. The NHS recently launched a contact tracing app that allows users to manage their epidemiological situation: The COVID Symptom Study app, an epidemiological research app that helps shed light on the spread of the virus and explores ways to fight the pandemic.