The Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic continues to expand around the globe. To speed up screening, the Chinese company Alibaba has trained its artificial intelligence algorithm. Now, they are achieving a success rate of 96%.

It is good to see artificial intelligence used for the good of humanity. Thanks to these advances, it is possible to identify patients more quickly. This way, they can accelerate their treatment and thus possibly limit the contagion.

Just 20 seconds to check for Coronavirus

Alibaba is the second-largest high-tech company in China, just behind Tencent. As such, like Amazon and Google, it has branches in various industries, including obviously health. Taking advantage of the resources at its disposal in terms of computing power and technology, Alibaba debut training its artificial intelligence algorithm to detect the presence of the Covid-19 coronavirus in potentially infected patients, thanks to a CT scan.

This artificial intelligence model has been trained with photos of more than 5,000 patients with Covid-19. The researchers say they are now able to detect infections by this new coronavirus with an efficiency of 96%. Already available at Zhengzhou hospital in Henan province, this system will quickly be available in hundred other establishments. This include the provinces of Hubei, Guangdong and Anhui.

The main advantage of this artificial intelligence is its speed. Indeed, it only takes 20 seconds for the software to render its verdict while it is necessary 5 to 15 minutes for a radiologist to analyze the pictures which can be 300 in number per patient.

If this system is the first for Covid-19, we already saw the use of AI for other diseases such as the one tested by Google to detect breast cancer and even the one that allows early detection of cavities. Recall that the former boss of Alibaba, Jack Ma has offered $ 14 million to help find a vaccine against the virus.