To slow the spread of coronavirus we’re being told to wash our hands more, preferably with soap and water, or failing that, with hand sanitisers. The resulting rush to buy hand sanitisers has led to empty shelves in supermarkets and chemists. But it hasn’t taken long for recipes for hand sanitisers to appear online. But do they work?
Working from home can be a real challenge for employees who find themselves doing it for the first time. To address this concern, many employees are turning to digital solutions to help them interact with colleagues and stay productive away from the office.
Since its launch in 2016, the online video sharing platform TikTok has grown at an astonishing rate. The app has been downloaded more than a billion times, and more than 700 million people around the world (most of them quite young) use it every day.
This week, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California joined them and declared a mandatory telework policy after an employee tested positive to COVID-19. NASA sites across the country have been testing their work-from-home capabilities.
Coronavirus has certainly created a pandemic of fear. The entire planet’s media is gripped by coronavirus. It is right that there is deep concern and mass planning for worst-case scenarios. And, of course, the repercussions move from the global health sphere into business and politics.
BlueDot’s AI algorithm, a type of computer program that improves as it processes more data, brings together news stories in dozens of languages, reports from plant and animal disease tracking networks and airline ticketing data. The result is an algorithm that’s better at simulating disease spread than algorithms that rely on public health data – better enough to be able to predict outbreaks. The company uses the technology to predict and track infectious diseases for its government and private sector customers.
Facial recognition is increasingly being used in many countries around the world. In some cases the take up has been dramatic. As a result, people are being observed by cameras more than ever, whether in stores, on public transit, or at their workplaces.
The first generation of people who have grown up using social media such as Facebook and Instagram are entering the workforce. For as long as this breed of so-called “digital natives” has been alive, some academics have been arguing that using the internet from a young age would shape the way people learn, work and even think.
If you’re concerned that automation and artificial intelligence are going to disrupt the economy over the next decade, join the club. But while policymakers and academics agree there’ll be significant disruption, they differ about its impact.
Aside from being a central information and alert system, Twitter also provides a platform for the narratives of those personally affected by disasters or outbreaks, which is useful when it comes to humanitarian assistance and support.