The AI-powered tool is able to analyse CT scans for signs of COVID-19 infection to help quickly diagnose the novel coronavirus which has caused havoc around the world.

With heroic medical staff under more pressure than ever caring for the huge influx of people suffering with COVID-19 – in addition to all the other ailments they have to treat – such an AI-powered tool could help to free up significant amounts of time.

M3 has been testing the solution in Japan since the end of March; with the aim of deploying it across hundreds of locations. 

Hospitals will send CT scans to M3’s system which will then return the results with a 1-5 scale indicating the likelihood of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Alibaba’s system has been used in Chinese hospitals – including in Wuhan, the expected source of the COVID-19 outbreak – for a while now. The Chinese tech giant claims its AI can diagnose COVID-19 within 20 seconds with an accuracy of 90 percent or higher.

On average, a doctor takes around 20 minutes to make a diagnosis once a CT scan is available. M3 has found that the system typically diagnoses in under a minute.

While finding the accuracy to be relatively high, M3 reports the accuracy falls short of the 90 percent claimed by Alibaba. Even at 90 percent, 100 patients in every 1000 risk being misdiagnosed.

However, reading COVID-19 scans is reportedly even tricky for skilled physicians – especially as the virus is still relatively new. An AI-powered system which frees up clinical time is sure to be welcomed by all hospitals.

Catching the smaller signs of COVID-19 early could even help with providing treatment to those who need it before they get seriously ill.

This isn’t the first time AI has been looked to for assistance in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this week, researchers from WVU Medicine and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute said they were able to predict the onset of COVID-19 symptoms three days early using AI to analyse data from Oura’s wearable rings.

Back in April, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University launched an AI-powered voice analysis system which aims to determine whether someone is suffering from COVID-19 using just a website.

While it seems likely we’re going to be living with COVID-19 in our lives for the foreseeable future, AI technologies look ready to step in and help.

(Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash)

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The bill, passed on Wednesday, aims to accelerate the sweeping change of regulations across various fields to support the creation of such futuristic cities.

Addressing issues such as depopulation and an aging society will be the focus of the super cities. Technologies including big data and AI will be key to successfully tackling the challenging problems.

Large amounts of data will be collected and organised from across administrative organisations.

Local governments will be selected for the ambitious projects which will launch forums with the national government and private companies to take forward the plans.

Draft plans will be created from this deep public-private collaboration that will subsequently be submitted to the state government if approved by local residents.

As with many smart city plans, there are deep concerns about the collection of personal data and what it could mean for individual privacy. Local residents are sure to want assurance that any data collection is anonymous.

A similar bill was submitted to the Diet (Japan’s decision-making institution) last year. The bill was scrapped following calls from the ruling government to review it.

The revised bill was passed on Wednesday. Given the appetite for the project across the government; the plans are now expected to progress swiftly.

(Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash)

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A Japanese artist will use a song partly composed by AI to welcome Pope Francis, who recently shared his concerns about the technology.

The song, “Protect all Life – The Signs of the Times,” is written by Jun Inoue.

Inoue is a Catholic himself and created an AI program which can generate a song in just a few seconds.

“I thought I should give everything I had to the song, so I decided to put in all the cutting-edge technology I had,” Inoue told Reuters.

Inoue wasn’t sure about using AI but decided to do so because of how intertwined the history of technology and music is. However, last month, AI News reported on Pope Francis’s concerns about artificial intelligence.

Pope Francis shared his views on AI during a Vatican conference attended by theologians, academics, and tech executives such as Mozilla co-founder Mitchell Baker and Facebook’s director of cybersecurity law Gavin Corn.

“If mankind’s so-called technological progress were to become an enemy of the common good, this would lead to an unfortunate regression to a form of barbarism dictated by the law of the strongest,” Pope Francis warned.

The Vatican hopes the conference will lead to a future document on considerations to make when developing AI technologies.

Inoue’s song is unlikely to trigger much concern from the Pope and may even help to show how AI can have a positive impact on people’s lives if used responsibly.

Earlier this year, a firm called Canny AI used deepfakes of politicians to create the following music video for John Lennon’s track Imagine:

This is, as the creators’ intended, an example of AI’s dangers when it comes to convincingly manipulating content.

Politicians and other influential figures could be made to appear like they’re saying and doing things which they’re not.

Such means could be used to sway public opinion and influence elections, and it’s going to be very difficult teaching the public not to necessarily believe their eyes and what to look out for when it comes to fake content.

Pope Francis will visit Japan from Nov 23rd-26th and marks only the second papal visit to the country.

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