Alibaba Cloud, the computing arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has opened its AI-powered diagnosis system, able to detect coronavirus cases via computerized tomography (CT) scans, to global medical professionals for free, the company announced on Thursday.
Developed by Alibaba’s research institute Damo Academy, the cloud-based diagnosis algorithm can identify differences in CT scans between patients infected with the novel virus and those with ordinary viral pneumonia, with an accuracy of up to 96%, according to Alibaba.
The algorithm can complete the recognition process within 20 seconds, nearly 60 times faster than human detection, says the company.
First unveiled in February, the new diagnostic tool has been deployed in more than 160 hospitals across China and assessed more than 260,000 clinical cases, according to Alibaba.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “China Brief” section, where KrASIA’s reporters will provide quick daily updates about the tech ecosystem in China.