Have you used a COVID-19 healthcheck or tracking app? Perhaps you've called a medical office and was surprised to hear an automated voice asking about your symptoms? If you went to a hospital, or through a train station, you might have seen scanners for detecting the virus. These are technologies that are powered by AI (or artificial intelligence) and have appeared in the wider population en masse, but perhaps weren't evident before March 2020.
AI is an interesting and different species of technology. They are clever. Because AI technologies can interact with the environment, they are capable of learning and changing behaviour, based on the cues they receive. Their thinking is able to move beyond the limitations of their programmer and programming. But only within the scope of the data they have access to. This is why big data is so important and discussed so widely - massive amounts of accurate data is fuel for the AI engine.
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Futuristic perspectives on AI assume they will be able to perform all tasks just as well as, or even better than, humans. However, this type of super intelligence, known as Strong or General AI, does not yet exist (Glikson and Woolley 2019). AI right now is clever, but within boundaries. Since COVID put stressors on many of our normal systems, our use and reliance on this level of technology has boomed. This has opened the gate for an increased speed of innovation, driven by necessity. COVID has also promoted an increased understanding and consideration of how AI technologies can be further used in healthcare and beyond.
China is leading the way.
From helping to diagnose the virus, to processing healthcare claims, to forecasting outbreaks - China's giant technology companies have ramped up their AI innovation capability and the population is adopting it at speed. You can read more about it here.
For example, Tencent (who operates WeChat), has a free online health consultation service using an AI chatbot. A chatbot is a program that can talk with you in natural language by text. You may have already used chatbots on commerce websites (many are not AI enabled and are quite frustrating). The health triage capability that AI chatbots offer is important because it helps people understand their symptoms better and limits unnecessary hospital attendance for an already stressed healthcare system. The Babylon Health app in the United Kingdom has a similar function. It is funded by the national health service, the NHS.
Baidu have been investing in AI technology for some time. They launched a medical triage chatbot in 2016 and it's use has since skyrocketed during COVID-19. Currently, the platform has a massive network of doctors—over 100,000 specializing in respiratory systems and emergency room practices—and has already handled over 15 million enquiries from users, helping to raise awareness of the coronavirus’s many symptoms while providing patients with a custom care plan based on their severity. This is an impressive patient experience initiative. Baidu are also heavily invested in AI enabled virus vaccine research and screening. You can read more about it here.
China's innovation advances are supported by it's particular environment and may be hard to copy for other countries. The Chinese population does not hold the same privacy concerns or trust issues as many Western populations. After talking to several people in the healthcare sector in China, the message was clear. There is such a large population, the existing healthcare system is stressed, new technologies are welcomed because they might help. Plus, Chinese people do everything through WeChat anyway - from paying for dinner, to connecting with friends, to engaging on their health. Robo-calls (proactive automated calls by AI voice agents - yes - this is coming!) to ask about your family and health were not seen as strange or intrusive - it was practical.
Necessity + a large population + high trust in technology all create a fertile test ground for new AI based technologies. Although China has an enormous bureaucracy, the government has enabled perceptions, practices and laws that help innovation move at speed. This is what we are seeing now. It is a powerful combination that other countries do not have.
Questions around ethics, rights and data management here are important. Though many of China's AI breakthroughs are global collaborations so will be under a high level of scrutiny.
I believe ethics are particularly important for a learning and changing AI technology interacting in the healthcare sector. There are calls for something similar to the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take before entering the profession: an AI developer and an AI itself should have a 'do no harm' level of programming. I find this particularly relevant, but wonder at the time it will take - we only recently achieved GDPR data protections in the EU and they have not yet been translated globally.
The rise - and even faster rise - of AI technology during COVID is a fascinating space. It is becoming part of how all of us engage with our health, and has already reached many other areas of our everyday lives. China is simply taking the lead.
Cultivating the right environment for innovation in AI to thrive is important and something global governments, industry and universities need to consider.
For those who want to read further, head to Kai-Fu Lee's book: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order
Sarah Daly is undertaking a PhD at the Queensland University of Technology, investigating the role of trust in the adoption and diffusion of AI based innovation, particularly in the healthcare sector. She is also the Operations Director of CapFeather, a customer strategy and innovation consulting firm.