AI, Or the Third Era of Health Geopolitics

AI has its role to play in health management. But not all governments have the same sensitivities on the issue. Health is environmental, cultural, but also geopolitical. It depends fundamentally on environmental factors (air, water, soil, noise), it is a representation of the world (and the fruit of social inequalities), but it is also part of a field of rivalries between powers in given territories.

We can, schematically, distinguish three geopolitical eras in terms of health, which overlap rather than succeed, insofar as they involve different scales and actors. The first era corresponds precisely to that of pandemics: the circulation of viruses is done on the back of homo sapiens, in the caravels of great discoveries or according to merchant circuits. Today, the globalization of transport makes it possible to accelerate the spread of pandemics on a planetary scale and at a very high speed.

The second era of health geopolitics is that of organizations: health organizations, from hospices to pharmacies; profit organizations with large pharmaceutical companies, product development of chemistry in the XIX th century; international organizations, the first global health conferences from the mid XIX th century until the great philanthropic foundations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) ushers in a third era in health geopolitics. It opens up the possibility of a global market for new proposed solutions, an increased ability to predict health developments, as well as a revolution in the management of health data. In the case of the coronavirus, it is precisely the meeting of these three eras that is at stake: a modern pandemic, seeking an answer in health organizations and artificial intelligence technologies.

AI is already used in Chinese hospitals Alibaba says its AI is operational. She would be able to determine if a person has coronavirus in less than 20 seconds and with 96% accuracy.

The Chinese giant is not the only one to be interested in the epidemic. The company Ping An has also developed an AI specializing in the coronavirus, but it would present poorer results with only 90% accuracy.

It is unclear whether either AI works as a tool in its own right to diagnose a patient with coronavirus. Does the technology developed by Alibaba make it possible to detect the virus even before the first symptoms appear or does it confirm the doctors’ diagnosis? Alibaba and Ping An say their AI is already in use in Chinese medical institutes.