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An AI Hunts the Wild Animals Carrying Ebola

Posted by timothy on from the it's-like-predator dept.

the_newsbeagle writes: Outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola follow a depressing pattern: People start to get sick, public health authorities get wind of the situation, and an all-out scramble begins to determine where the disease started and how it's spreading. Barbara Han, a code-writing ecologist, hopes her algorithms will put an end to that reactive model. She wants to predict outbreaks and enable authorities to prevent the next pandemic. Han takes a big-data approach, using a machine-learning AI to identify the wild animal species that carry zoonotic diseases and transmit them to humans.

2 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Vaporware by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, did you keep scrolling?

    Our study yielded more than scientific insights: It also provided actionable intelligence. As the algorithm sorted through the 2,200 rodent species, it provided a list of new suspects. Some species that had previously been given a "0" for unknown reservoir status fit more neatly in the "1" category of known disease carriers. We didn't have to wait long for validation. While we were getting our results to press, two of those suspect species were indeed recognized as novel reservoirs for human diseases.

    Sure sounds to me that, for the North American populations they tested this one they actually did demonstrate it actually works.

    I'm sure it's not perfect or complete, but it sure sounds like it actually created some testable results.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Re:easy to prevent by SuricouRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ebola gets a lot of attention because it's high-mortality, spreads fast in the right conditions, and is a wonderfully messy way to die - and that means lots of newspaper sales and TV ratings.

    It's the influenzas you have to look out for. People don't pay attention any more after the bird flu and swine flu fizzled out without producing the pandemic everyone was fearing - and perhaps the next one will do likewise. Eventually, though, we'll get another really nasty strain and it'll be 1918 all over again. Fifty million dead last time - people forgot quickly.

    Ask most people today about the 1918 pandemic and most wouldn't know about it - and of those that do know, half of it only know it from a passing mention in Twilight.