We all know how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been – and it could have been even worse if not for the efforts of scientists and health workers around the world. But what if we could get a heads-up on the next most dangerous variants of a virus before they become a global threat?
Well, a new AI system can just do that. It can warn us about the emergence of dangerous virus variants in future pandemics, according to a study by scientists from Scripps Research and Northwestern University in the US.
EWAD
The system, named early warning anomaly detection (EWAD), uses machine learning to analyze the genetic sequences, frequencies, and mortality rates of virus variants as they spread across the world.