Tag: Pandemic

AI to transform Healthcare of the future in the shadow of COVID-19

Todd R. Weiss

AI technologies are already in place in many retail stores and other industries, but a July 2020 study by chipmaker Intel Corp. found that 84% of the respondents — made up of 234 senior decision-makers inside U.S. healthcare organizations — have already deployed or expect to deploy AI within their healthcare operations. That’s up from a previous Intel study in 2018, when a little more than one-third of the respondents said they were using or planning to implement AI.

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AI-based Recycler AMP Robotics gains $55M in new funding from Investors

George Leopold

AMP Robotics Corp., an AI startup developing technology that sorts recyclable materials, has raised an additional $55 million in its latest funding round. The Denver-based AI startup launched in 2015 has so far raised more than $71 million in two funding rounds.

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How RPA could help distribute and track COVID-19 vaccines

Kyle Wiggers

The first shipments of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines arrived at health systems across the U.S. this month, a significant milestone in the fight against a pandemic that has infected and killed millions of people. But vaccine distribution and administration is a major logistical challenge, not least because both vaccines require cold storage. Nevertheless, Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. public-private COVID-19 treatment partnership, optimistically aims to vaccinate tens of millions of people by year’s end.

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COVID-19 vaccine distribution algorithms may cement health care inequalities

Kyle Wiggers

Earlier this month, following the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval, the federal government began distributing doses COVID-19 vaccine to health systems throughout the country. But shipments must be prioritized in a country of over 300 million people. This logistical challenge has fallen on algorithms designed to account for a range of factors in identifying which populations are most vulnerable.

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How Buffett is Hedging against the endless Pandemic

Ras Vasilisin

Where would you invest in an endless world of the Pandemic? Pharmaceuticals, 5G network, Apple stock, cloud storage? Well, if you believed in no end to lockdowns, you’d probably invest in all the above and diversify. That’s precisely what Buffett and his team at Berkshire Hathaway have done. So, let me walk you through Buffett’s eight most significant moves during the last quarter.

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Stanford and Carnegie Mellon find race and age bias in mobility data that drives COVID-19 policy

Kyle Wiggers

Smartphone-based mobility data has played a major role in responses to the pandemic. Describing the movement of millions of people, location information from Google, Apple, and others has been used to analyze the effectiveness of social distancing polices and probe how different sectors of the economy have been affected.

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K Health raises $42 million to expand its AI-powered telemedicine platform

Kyle Wiggers

Tel Aviv-based K Health today closed a $42 million series D round to grow its telemedicine offering, bringing its total raised to date to $139.3 million. Beyond the fundraising, the 250-employee company announced it will collaborate with the Mayo Clinic to integrate the health system’s Clinic Data Analytics Platform, which includes clinical decision support tools for Mayo Clinic patients and doctors.

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Google updates COVID-19 forecasting models with longer time horizons and new regions

Kyle Wiggers

In August, in partnership with the Harvard Global Health Institute, Google launched a set of models — the COVID-19 Public Forecasts — that provide projections of COVID-19 cases, deaths, ICU utilization, ventilator availability, and other metrics for U.S. counties and states. Today, the two organizations released what they claim are significantly improved models — trained on public data from Johns Hopkins University, Descartes Labs, the United States Census Bureau, and elsewhere — that expand beyond the U.S.

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Recognizing data points that signal trends for the future of business post-pandemic

Tim O039Reilly O039Reilly Media

Planning for a post-COVID-19 future and creating a robust enterprise strategy require both strategic scenario planning and the ability to recognize what scenario planners call “news from the future” — data points that tell you whether the world is trending in the direction of one or another of your imagined scenarios.

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Facebook’s AI matches people in need with those willing to assist

Kyle Wiggers

Facebook says it has deployed a feature in its Community Help hub to make it easier for users to assist each other during the pandemic. As of this week, AI will detect when a public post on News Feed is about needing or offering help and will surface a suggestion to share it on Community Help.

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The role of autonomous ships in a world wary of pandemics

Paul Sawers

COVID-19 is accelerating technological advances across just about every industry. The pandemic has had a direct impact on the transport realm, with social distancing measures calling traditional modes of travel into question.

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Density raises $51 million to promote social distancing with AI occupancy-tracking sensors

Kyle Wiggers
Density raises $51 million to promote social distancing with AI occupancy-tracking sensors

Cofounder and CEO Andrew Farah says the $51 million will be put toward addressing “unprecedented demand” from offices, manufacturers, grocery stores, industrial plants, and governments trying to abide by capacity limits during the pandemic.

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Study finds 195 robot deployments worldwide in response to the pandemic

Kyle Wiggers
Study finds 195 robot deployments worldwide in response to the pandemic

Over 66 different kinds of “social” robots have been piloted in hospitals, health centers, airports, office buildings, and other public and private spaces in response to the pandemic, according to a study from researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University.

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