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AI Company SparkBeyond Identifies Coronavirus Hotspots in Italy
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Welcome back. Data is among the most powerful tools in the battle to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the most potentially important data comes directly from patients who have tested positive and are being treated for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. An artificial-intelligence company based in Israel makes the cases for collecting "high-resolution" data about the movements of patients, so that more useful insights about the spread of the disease can be gleaned. "There are safe ethical ways to do this while respecting privacy,” says Sagie Davidovich, co-founder and CEO of SparkBeyond. “This can save lives."
Do you think that governments should collect more detailed information about Covid-19 patients and share it in a way that works to protect their privacy? Share your thoughts using the email links at the end of this newsletter.
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SparkBeyond identifies virus hotspots in Italy. AI company SparkBeyond Ltd. says government information about the movements of coronavirus patients in Italy has yielded insight into the location of infection hotspots. Based on that analysis, drinking from a water fountain in a public park might be a really bad idea.
SparkBeyond’s data analysis shows that certain areas correlate with higher rates of infection for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. They include drinking fountains in parks, gas stations and areas near them, railway stations, museums and other tourist points.
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One large hotspot, particularly in the hours immediately before Italy's lockdown, was the A1 highway (pictured), which runs through the heart of Italy from Milan to Naples. Sagie Davidovich, co-founder and CEO of Israel-based SparkBeyond, said Italy provided researchers with data about the regional movement
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SparkBeyond has identified coronavirus hotspots in places including Tel Aviv, Israel. PHOTO: SPARKBEYOND LTD.
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of patients stripped of identifying characteristics. However, some governments gave researchers more granular data that can yield greater insight, he said.
SparkBeyond's “hypothesis engine” applies AI to client data, augmented with other data sets, to prove or disprove theories. It works with Fortune 500 companies and has a partnership with Microsoft Corp., Mr. Davidovich said.
The governments of South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel have asked coronavirus patients to supply them with highly detailed information about their recent activities, down to the names of restaurants they have visited, he said. That information has been anonymized to hide the identity of patients, then shared with researchers. Mr. Davidovich said he hopes other governments will gather such “high-resolution” data and make it available to researchers.
“We need more countries to do this as soon as possible. There are safe ethical ways to do this while respecting privacy,” he said. “This can save lives. We need policy makers to make fast decisions,” he said.
―Steven Rosenbush
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In bid for coronavirus vaccine, U.S. eases access to supercomputers. The U.S. government, International Business Machines Corp. and others are giving researchers world-wide access to at least 16 supercomputers to help speed the discovery of vaccines and drugs to combat the novel coronavirus, reports WSJ’s Sara Castellanos.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Sunday announced the Covid-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, a partnership that includes IBM, the Energy Department national laboratories, Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud, Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp. and others.
Providing access to powerful computing resources. Researchers from academia, government and the private sector will be able to submit coronavirus-related projects through a website beginning Sunday. Representatives from the consortium with backgrounds in areas such as high-performance computing, biology and epidemiology will approve the projects based on merit and the path to fastest impact, said Dario Gil, director of IBM Research. The goal is to grant researchers access to powerful computing resources days after they submit their projects.
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CIOs batten down hatches. Much of the economy is grinding to a halt as part of the effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic, and chief information officers are doing everything they can to help their companies survive a massive contraction, report WSJ’s Angus Loten and Agam Shah. CIOs have expressed concerns about a possible recession over the past year. But the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic are far more sudden and severe than anyone expected even a few weeks ago.
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Robots put to use helping elderly weather the crisis. Fabrice Goffin, founder and co-chief executive of ZoraBots, had seen orders for the company’s humanoid robots plummet amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic. But when Belgium earlier this month banned visits to nursing homes to shield residents from the virus, Mr. Goffin had an idea, reports WSJ’s Ruth Bender.
Marketing to nursing homes. The machines, he decided, could be used to help those now cut off from their families. The robots, which respond to simple voice commands, can make video calls and connect even the least tech-savvy to their relatives in seconds. Within days of marketing the robots to nursing homes ZoraBot’s stock of 70 robots were reserved. Mr. Goffin is now bringing over 700 more from its Chinese manufacturer to lend to nursing homes all over Europe, free of charge.
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Chinese demand for robots grows. The demand for service robots is growing in China, where the coronavirus outbreak resulted in worker shortages and human-contact restrictions, reports Reuters.
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Device analyzes coughs. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst developed an AI device that analyzed coughing sounds in a health clinic and created models showing the spread of the flu and other diseases, reports Becker's Hospital Review. The researchers said the unit, after wider testing, could help health experts more accurately project the spread of respiratory illnesses, such as Covid-19, according to the report.
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Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski will plead guilty to one count and the remaining charges will be dropped. CREDIT: STEPHEN LAM/REUTERS
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Former Google engineer charged with trade-secret theft reaches deal with U.S. Anthony Levandowski, the engineer charged in August with 33 counts of trade-secret theft from Google’s self-driving car project, reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors in which he will plead guilty to one count and the remaining charges will be dropped, reports the WSJ’s Elizabeth Wollman.
According to a court filing Thursday, Mr. Levandowski will plead guilty to the last count in the indictment, charging him with theft and attempted theft of trade secrets related to “Project Chauffeur,” as Google’s autonomous vehicle program was called at the time. Specifically, Mr. Levandowski said he downloaded a weekly update for the program “with the intent to use it to benefit someone other than Google,” the legal filing shows.
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The keys to developing, scaling AI. A pair of McKinsey experts, writing in the Harvard Business Review, say organizations get the most out of their artificial-intelligence investments when they align their AI and business strategies; get AI and business experts working together; fund AI talent and training; develop AI standards; employ good data practices; and get their organizations to embrace the technology.
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