A person watches live data reporting the worldwide spread of Coronavirus as the UK continues in ... [+]
As the human race traverses through the unknown of dealing with a global pandemic, one of the small (if not anxiety-inducing) comforts for many is information. Data. Facts. For others, it's a constant stream of lies from politicians. But for most of us, it's data and information. We're home, we're online and we're consuming all the content.
It's a mess of information out there. Every state has a COVID-19 KPI dashboard, Google has created a search page resource warehouse and Twitter and Facebook are constantly full of misinformation and memes, conspiracy theories and stupidity. Local news has been hijacked by a doofus holding mini Golden Corral dinner hour campaign rallies. So what's real?
That's a loaded question. The good news is that tech companies are scrambling to be the ones to deliver the most reliable and accurately sourced information, or at least build an AI to facilitate your ingestion of that information.
Take Avaamo for instance. Avaamo is a deep-learning software company. It creates conversational interfaces to solve enterprise-level data problems, applying AI technology (neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning) at an enterprise level. Avaamo has taken all of that and repackaged it into a delivery system for information about COVID-19.
Avaamo has launched Project Covid, a real-time AI chatbot that [is not a replacement for a medical professional] answers questions about the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. It uses its conversational AI engine to have conversations with millions of pages of information from the CDC (United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), NIH (National Institutes of Health), and WHO (World Health Organization) in order to hopefully answer your questions.
It also includes preparation for quarantine/the disease, a symptom checker, global status updates, school closures and state-mandated lockdown information, as well as answers to practical questions like whether food delivery is contagious. That last question being answered by every columnist ever.
Project Covid is being offered free (damn straight) to users, care management teams, government agencies and businesses. So, everyone. Odd that Avaamo is not offering this web-based mobile-optimized virtual assistant through direct access (if you want it, you have to email the company), but it is encouraging to see a tech company quickly pivot and apply its technology to social good.
So once you've got information — how do you get it out there? To the dozens of social platforms in existence? Not you personally, you just ingest the information like the rest of us. But think non-political humanitarian groups and medical organizations working on COVID-19 relief efforts that rely on the most updated data to make decisions.
WHO, The Red Cross and The World Economic Forum have been using Restream, which offers cross-platform live-streaming, generally at a price. For now, for certain organizations, it's free. It's enabling the aforementioned organizations to broadcast critical news about COVID-19 to affected communities operating on multiple platforms through its COVID-19 relief response program.
“Lombardia is one of the regions in Italy that has been hit hardest by COVID-19. Having been on lockdown since late February, we are relying on Restream to spread our broadcasts across multiple channels to update the community with essential information and educate them on how to stay safe throughout the quarantine,” said Pierfrancesco Gallizzi, editor in chief of Lombardia Notizie, press agency of the Lombardy Region, in a press release. “Using Restream, we are able to reach all citizens of the region on all the major social platforms at once and connect while isolated, ensuring safety, strength and unity during this time. Many national TV networks use our feed and broadcast it live during their news highlights every day. In this emergency, Restream's support is very important."
This pivot is important and needed. Restream originally launched in 2015 to support YouTube and Twitch cross-streaming. It now can cross-stream to over 30 social platforms globally and is a subscription service. So it makes sense that Restream would make that power available to those that need to broadcast important health messages during a pandemic. Offering it for free is the only tact here as well, because charging non-profit or health-based organizations for that service would not be a good look.
The information supply chain is not broken. Tech companies are stepping up, stripping down their subscription fees to zero and making sure that people and organizations have the most timely and accurate information possible, from the most trusted and scientific sources. The only thing left to do is be sure to tip the hell out of your grocery delivery person, thank a nurse and continue to consume content until we're all back outside, bumping shoulders in mall and taking the environment for granted.
