South China Morning Post reports that Shanghai is testing facial recognition terminals in pharmacies that will verify a person’s identity prior to dispensing controlled substances.

Some legal medications can be turned into banned drugs. Cold and allergy medications, for example, often contain ephedrine which is a key component of crystal meth.

Any prescription medication containing ephedrine, psychotropic substances, and/or tranquilisers will be subject to the facial recognition check. Both patients and pharmacists will be checked to prevent any collusion.

China, along with many other countries, is facing an increasing problem with people buying legal medicines in large quantities that can be converted into recreational drugs for selling on the black market. The use of facial recognition is a novel, albeit controversial, method of combating the issue.

The facial recognition terminals have been in testing since November and adopted by 31 healthcare organisations across seven districts so far. Full coverage of Shanghai’s medical premises is expected by the first half of 2021.

Facial recognition is quickly becoming the norm in every part of life in China. The technology is being used to catch and shame jaywalkers, identify criminals, subway rides, and more.

iiMedia Research found that around 118 million people in China signed up for facial recognition-powered payments in 2019, compared to just 61 million in 2018. The report shows how facial recognition is becoming more widely accepted in China.

Many other nations, particularly in the West, are more wary of mass facial recognition deployments. For example, a recent EU document suggested a time-limited ban on the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces of between three to five years to assess the “impacts of this technology and possible risk management measures.”

It’s hard to imagine such initiatives being deployed in such countries without significant outcry but Shanghai’s latest implementation is at least showing how the technology can be used to tackle serious problems like illegal drug sales.

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Nuritas, headquartered in Dublin, has already proven it’s up to the task. The startup used AI to discover an ingredient to help treat inflammation which is expected to reach sports nutrition products by the end of 2019.

The debut ingredient was discovered as part of a collaboration with BASF, a German chemical giant. Whereas the standard to discover a new ingredient is between five and seven years using traditional methods, the pair used AI to discover it in just two.

“To have something in market that quickly is just exceedingly disruptive by comparison to what’s normally the case with that particular arena,” Nuritas CEO Emmet Browne told Yahoo Finance UK.

While it’s unclear what the next discoveries will be, Nuritas is expecting five more ingredients within the next 12-18 months. The company’s success rate of 60 percent is far higher than the industry standard.

“In effect, what we do is use artificial intelligence to unlock nature’s secrets. That’s the depth of it.”

Nuritas has raised £40 million from a series of high-profile investors which includes Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, and U2’s Bono and the Edge.

AI is being increasingly used in healthcare in life-changing (and often life-saving!) ways. You can find all our AI in healthcare coverage here.

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