The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has proved that effective infectious disease surveillance systems are essential for global health. Last year, BlueDot and Metabiota separately demonstrated the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in disease surveillance and pandemic prevention. We should not, however, lose sight of AI’s limitations either.
Founded in 2013 and 2008 respectively, BlueDot and Metabiota both utilise AI to monitor disease outbreaks around the world. Both companies use AI algorithms to analyse various data sources and public documents, such as airline ticketing data and statements from public health bodies, using natural language processing to analyse sources written in any language.
