How a Canadian startup used AI to track China virus

Khan poses during an interview at his office in Toronto, Canada. BlueDot has developed an algorithm that sifted through hundreds of thousands of news stories a day along with air traffic information in order to detect and monitor the spread of infectious diseases. It sent an alert to clients on Dec 31 about the new coronavirus outbreak – a few days before public health authorities made official statements. — AFP

TORONTO, Canada: On the shores of Lake Ontario, a Canadian startup raised one of the earliest alarms about the risk posed by the mystery virus that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. How did it do it? Artificial intelligence.

BlueDot has developed an algorithm that can sift through hundreds of thousands of news stories a day along with air traffic information in order to detect and monitor the spread of infectious diseases.