Maddie Grounds, a features writer for the Immigration Advice Service; an organisation of immigration lawyers in Ireland, the US and the UK, discusses how although technology can have its faults, AI can be a force for good as the world battles COVID-19.
With the world confronting the biggest and most socioeconomically destructive pandemic since post-World War II, healthcare systems across the globe are desperately searching for solutions to combat unprecedented levels of medical pressure created by the Coronavirus pandemic. In the UK, the notoriety of the NHS continues to be undermined by stretched workforces, crumbling resources and severe underfunding, with 14 hour long shifts, bed shortages and a deficiency of personal protective equipment exposing the harsh realities that policies have had on our ability to tackle such tumultuous times of crisis.
Exacerbating the scarcity of filled healthcare vacancies, the government’s points-based immigration system will see the end to Free Movement for EU migrants. The requirements needed to obtain a General Work Visa is set in stone to be tightened and toughened. Consider, for example, that the £23,040 lowest salary threshold required just to score 10 points of the 70-point system won’t allow any migrant care workers into the country; UK carers on average earn £16,000 per annum.
Instead, the government’s decision to curtail, rather than encourage overseas migration, has been outweighed by the drive to invest in artificial intelligence and automation. Yet, whilst the shift from human to robot has previously been deemed problematic in painting a dystopian picture of society’s future, the current global pandemic has shown the need for technological aid and support to be higher than ever before.
How can technology save us from this pandemic?
The implementation of social distancing measures has reiterated the undeniable value of technology in facilitating working from home and connecting with loved ones through apps such as Facetime and Zoom. Robot cleaners in countries like China have proved pivotal in disinfecting the streets whilst powerful surveillance in Singapore was a large contributor to the country’s quick flattening of the curve. Those tracked as entering large offices by a network of cameras were forced to have their temperature taken and questioned about their recent travel.
Mobile phone apps AliPay and WeChat also played a significant role in the ability to track citizens, grading them by their green, yellow or red health status and permitting them to travel accordingly. Whilst scepticism has arisen from being labelled a ‘spy-app’, the NHS and the Oxford University is now helping to develop a similar app in the UK.
Incentives from private companies such as Google and Facebook similarly emphasise the invaluable benefits in obtaining user location data as well as monitoring search requests and even, looking into the tracking of coughing sounds through smart speakers. Among technological projects looking to analyse their user’s wellbeing, Verily, Google’s research arm, is in the process of developing a small body-worn temperature patch that transmits data to a phone app. As stated by Google’s Chief Executive, Sundar Pichai, this would ‘support earlier diagnosis and treatment of a viral infection’ and ‘could be especially useful in elderly populations, where viral infections have higher rates of morbidity and mortality’.
For projects which require automated data handling, artificial intelligence has proven to be essential in speeding up the research process to fight the disease. DeepMind, the AI arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is using data on genomes to discover which drugs could work for COVID-19 whilst an AI-driven Health map in Boston identified a growing cluster of pneumonia cases before its discovery by human researchers.
The effects of Automation on the NHS
If implemented correctly, ‘care robots’ could revolutionise the UK’s current struggling care sector, with the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network claiming robots can proactively help with ‘medicine adherence, nutrition and rehabilitation support’ and could secure a ‘further £6bn productivity gain’. Another NHS report also found that automation could spare 5.7 million hours of General Practitioner’s time, which would save the NHS a huge £13 billion per year. For example, automation can already flag up early signs of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease whilst surgical automation enables intricate procedures that are often highly challenging with just the human hand.
With social care increasingly crippling under staffing shortages and a strain of resources, care-bots can aid the elderly and disabled by providing simple tasks such as setting reminders to take medication and monitoring a patient’s temperature. Research has shown care-bots can also help support people suffering from mental health illness – for example, Paro, a multi-sensory robot used for therapeutic recovery was designed for the patient to look after them, encouraging self-sufficiency, purpose and independence. However, with emotional connection and compassion being at the core of successful care work, face-to-face support from human workers must always remain at the forefront of the care sector.
In a period of global uncertainty and collectivised panic, artificial intelligence and automation undoubtedly has an invaluable place in aiding struggling healthcare systems, tackling the spread of COVID-19 and facilitating vital research to end the pandemic. Whilst the government’s 2020 Budget shocked the nation in boasting the highest net contribution to the public sector since the 1990s, public confidence remains fragmented by the stifling of migration figures and the devastating accounts from NHS workers due to years of the sector’s neglect and underfunding. Certainly, this turbulent era is the time and place for automation in healthcare. But let’s not forget its need to be harmonised with our invaluable human heroes.
