Opinion: AI can help predict the next pandemic
Climate change and the shifting patterns of diseases coupled with the increasing possibility of outbreaks mean more countries and scientists are relying on artificial intelligence to predict the emergence of diseases like dengue, malaria and cholera before an epidemic occurs by analyzing various kinds of weather and health data.
Outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19, Ebola, avian flu and mpox show how hard it is to control potential epidemics. The pathogens often come from animals; however, at what time and in what place these diseases will jump into people is impossible to predict. Climate changes, industrial animal farming and the invasion of natural habitats by people raise the chances of so-called spillover events, when pathogens make the move from animals to humans and, in some cases, lead to the emergence of epidemics. AI can help with analysis of datasets collected from various sources, including information on the climate, land use, animal farming, transportation, population migrations and socio-economic factors.