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Algorithms Help Coronavirus Doctors Cope With Soaring Caseload
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Good day. The number of new cases of the coronavirus soared on Thursday as authorities in China changed the criteria for diagnosis. Doctors face mounting pressure to identify patients and prioritize the most serious cases. Today, we explain how some doctors are aided in their analysis by AI that spots lung abnormalities associated with the disease. A quick diagnosis “is utterly important,” one analyst says.
Note to readers: The newsletter won't publish on Monday, February 17, in observance of the Presidents Day holiday in the U.S. Have a good day.
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Patients at a temporary hospital in Wuhan, China, this week. Public venues have been transformed into hospitals as local authorities seek to relieve the strain on the health system. CREDIT: XIONG QI/ZUMA PRESS
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A Beijing-based startup says its application is being used in more than 10 Chinese hospitals to detect the coronavirus. Medical workers on the front lines of the coronavirus outbreak are under pressure to quickly diagnose people who are infected. Experts say medical-imaging equipment embedded with artificial intelligence is starting to aid them in their work, WSJ Pro reports.
Infervision, a medical AI company based in Beijing and operating globally, said an application it has developed is helping doctors in more than 10 Chinese hospitals detect the new virus. “The AI system has assisted the doctors with the analyses of over 2,300 novel coronavirus cases so far,” the company said on its LinkedIn page.
Coronavirus leads to so-called ground-glass abnormalities in the lungs that are revealed by CT machine images, Yusuf Tuna, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm EqualOcean, told WSJ Pro in an email. “You can elaborate on whether the patient has coronavirus by checking his lung CT scan. Checking hundreds of CT scans is not an easy task, so these deep-learning-based tools accelerate the process."
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The need for quick diagnosis “is utterly important,” Mr. Tuna said. “As they have tens of thousands of suspected cases every day in Wuhan while running out of diagnosis kits, they need to use other techniques like CT scan.
AI helps doctors to quickly analyze a huge number of medical images, supporting the diagnosis process.
Without being diagnosed, patients can not be treated as a coronavirus patient and they won't be quarantined.”
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More AI on the way. “My prediction is many other AI tech companies which are currently focused on lung screening...will also be in a race to develop similar algorithms,” said Bhvita Jani, a health-care technology analyst with U.K.-based data and analytics firm IHS Markit Ltd.
Infervision's co-founders include Kuan Chen and Shaokang Wang, both of whom studied at the University of Chicago, according to their LinkedIn pages. Crunchbase Inc. describes Infervision as a late-stage startup that uses deep learning and computer vision to help diagnose cancers. Infervision has raised funds from CDH Investments, Sequoia Capital China and others, according to EqualOcean.
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A Shell facility in Torzhok, Russia. The oil company says about 2,000 of its 82,000 employees have expressed interest in or have been approached about taking AI courses through online-education company Udacity. PHOTO: ANDREY RUDAKOV/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Shell aims to enroll thousands in AI training. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is expanding an online program that teaches its employees artificial-intelligence skills, part of an effort to cut costs, improve business processes and generate revenue, Sara Castellanos reports for WSJ Pro. The Anglo-Dutch oil company, which has about 82,000 employees, said about 2,000 have signed up to take AI courses through online-education company Udacity Inc. They include petroleum engineers, chemists and geophysicists, among others. The courses are voluntary, not required, and employees can complete them at their own pace during work hours, Shell said.The oil company covers the cost of
the training.
Shell has a broader strategy to embed AI across its operations, a move that has helped the oil giant lower costs and avoid downtime. Other oil-and-gas companies that have tapped AI to improve operations and reduce costs include Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC and Chevron Corp. “Artificial intelligence enables us to process the vast quantity of data across our businesses to generate new insights which can keep us ahead of the competition,” said Yuri Sebregts, Shell’s CTO, in an email.
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Udacity Chief Executive Gabe Dalporto, left, and Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder, president and executive chairman. PHOTO: UDACITY
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Newsletter exclusive: Udacity's Sebastian Thrun on AI training in the enterprise. Companies including Shell are turning to online-education company Udacity Inc. to help train employees in artificial intelligence, an effort to make these workers more valuable and assuage fears about AI, said Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder and president. (Read accompanying story at CIO Journal.)
Executives who work with Udacity typically are looking to “upskill” employees in areas of AI such as reinforcement learning, computer vision, data analysis and natural-language processing, Mr. Thrun said. Udacity's courses are project-based and can last as long as six months. The company declined to disclose enterprise pricing details.
Udacity, based in Mountain View, Calif., was founded in 2011.
Mr. Thrun said companies in sectors from finance to energy are training existing employees in technical AI skills rather than seeking outside talent. That’s partly because AI experts are scarce and in high demand. “Even in Silicon Valley, for me to hire a machine-learning [expert] is extremely hard,” said Mr. Thrun, also the founder of Alphabet Inc.’s research arm X and Google’s self-driving efforts.
Once employees have picked up AI skills, they are encouraged to come up with ways to solve business problems, Mr. Thrun said. For example, AI could be used to help personalize recommendations for customers or to analyze data for salespeople, he said.
Client businesses are realizing that investing in AI training can also result in cultural changes throughout the business, Mr. Thrun said, especially for employees who are afraid that AI will replace their jobs. “In most cases, people get a little scared of AI. What we try to do is take away that fear,” Mr. Thrun said.
Udacity's courses for corporate employees are expected to be its largest business this year, executives say. Other enterprise clients include Airbus, Ford and AT&T.
—Sara Castellanos
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Clinc CEO resigns following investigation into his behavior. The chief executive of AI startup Clinc Inc., Jason Mars, has resigned, according to the Verge, which reports that employees made allegations of sexual harassment against him. The CEO stepped down after an investigation of his behavior by an “independent outside professional,” the article said, citing a Clinc spokesperson. "I vehemently deny any and all allegations of sexual misconduct," Mr. Mars told WSJ Pro in an email Thursday. The Verge reported that in an email to Clinc, Mr. Mars wrote that allegations against him were embellished and fabricated, but “the truth is there were cases where I drank too much and partied
with employees in a way that’s not becoming of a CEO." Clinc offers AI-powered chatbots to clients in industries including health care.
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Huawei Technologies and two of its U.S. subsidiaries were charged with racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to steal trade secrets in a new federal indictment. The indictment opens another front in the Trump administration’s battle with the Chinese telecommunications firm. (WSJ)
Why are Amazon and Google in Washington's firing line? One answer is Ken Glueck. Some of the biggest lobbying fights pit company against company. Few have mastered the game like Oracle and its head lobbyist, who has emerged as a behind-the-scenes thorn for America’s technology giants. (WSJ)
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