Before coronavirus had emerged, Burning Glass estimated that Artificial Intelligence associated jobs and roles would grow up to 40.1% over the next decade. If the COVID-19 crisis continues at this rate, this percentage could rise even higher. This is because more and more companies will gradually turn towards AI-powered automation as a potential solution to disruptions in their workflow processes.

COVID-19 has changed the majority of work-life at the moment, even if it is for a short amount of time. It has also created numerous challenges for tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google – that ordinarily rely upon human labour to create, moderate or manage content. With Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning rapidly evolving, the real question is whether or not they are advanced enough to help these firms handle disruption and assist businesses during the pandemic.

Also read: 10 Best Practices to Work From Home

Considering the current Work-From-Home policies of various organisations around the globe, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and other such companies are in the same proverbial boat to eliminate fake news about COVID-19. Misinformation, rumours, and fake news tend to not only flood networks in minutes but also spark unnecessary fears amongst civilians, leading to unavoidable panic and similar consequences.

Social media usage is the biggest source of complication in the fight against misinformation against the virus. Since the Coronavirus outbreak last December in China, misinformation, especially through WhatsApp, Facebook-owned message application has risen continually. In fact, a message claimed to be an advisory from UNICEF, debunked in the first week of March, recommended frequent washing of clothes since coronavirus remains for nine hours on fabrics. Another recommended heavy Vitamin C intake, under the lists of a do-it-yourself (DIY) detection test for the virus. Numerous videos too have circulated around Facebook and YouTube that purportedly show scenes from China – from videos of men being shot at, to scenes of bodies lying on streets, all of which to show the impact of the virus.

Considering that the virality of fake news is faster than its debunking, there is an increasing need for the riddance of fake news. However, workers handling these tasks can not only necessarily do so from home, but also match the speed of these viral spreads, especially not on their personal laptops considering privacy, sensitivity, and legal reasons. This is where AIML can prove to be a potential solution — to scan questionable content quickly and make decisions regarding its elimination.

In fact, as a result of the new measures taken, Google is temporarily relying completely on technology. As per Google’s statement, via its YouTube Creator Blog, “Machine learning algorithms can help detect potentially harmful content and then sends it to human reviewers for assessment. As a result of the new measures we are taking, we will temporarily start relying more on technology to help with some of the work normally done by reviewers. This means automated systems will start removing some content without human review, so we can continue to act quickly to remove violative content and protect our ecosystem, while we have workplace protections in place”. Their current AI- automated systems are in play and are working to remove irrelevant, violative and fake content quickly off their websites. While the tech industry has been leaning in this direction for some time now, AIML is still nascent, despite the hype.

Also read: 10 Ways How AI Tackles the Coronavirus

Nonetheless, aggressively embracing AI will create more opportunities for technologists who have mastered AIML skills of any sort. The rollout of AI platforms have demonstrated tremendous potential and hence it is just a matter of time before it assists in figuring out core automated processes to keep businesses running.

If you are trapped at home and are intrigued by Artificial Intelligence, now is the time to explore online learning resources. Explore career and upskill with Great Learning’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning program.



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