悦辩悦明 | 科技中国 解码未来 AI医生助力抗疫
Sometime late last year, a previously unknown virus quietly began to spread.
By the end of January, the virus we now know as COVID-19, had become a crisis.
In a matter of weeks, hospitals were overwhelmed. And medical workers pushed their limits, as tens of thousands of patients rushed to be tested.
去年下半年，一种新型病毒开始悄无声息地传播。截至1月底 新冠肺炎已演变为一场危机。几周内，医院人满为患。医务人员身心俱疲，成千上万的患者争先恐后地接受检测。
Despite our best efforts, it wasn't possible to confirm every new case in time.
A new hope emerged when people turned to a new technology.
尽管我们已经竭尽全力，但仍无法保证每位患者都及时确诊。
然而，新技术带来了新希望。
Like any infectious disease, the most important and urgent task is to tell who is sick. Normally we need doctors to do that. To detect COVID-19, they found out two methods: nucleic acid testing and CT scans.
如同应对以往各种传染病一样，当务之急是区分出感染者。通常我们需要医生完成这项工作。新冠肺炎的检测方法有两种：核酸检测和CT影像。
CT scans are basically X-ray images of your body. And trained doctors can read these pictures and tell who might have a problem.
CT影像基本就是人身体的X光片，训练有素的医生通过读片判断哪些人可能被感染。但是医生数量毕竟有限，要读的胸片实在太多。
But there are only so many doctors and too many scans to be read. Despite the around-the-clock work, it was simply not fast enough.
虽然医生已经在争分夺秒工作，但速度仍不够快。
An AI company in Beijing came to help.
北京的一家人工智能公司提供了解决方案。
This is where the algorithm comes in. By dramatically reducing the time to interpret tests, the AI was able to buy hospitals precious time.
应用算法来读片，人工智能技术大大缩短了读片时间，为医院争取到宝贵的时间。
Seemingly, there is nothing you can associate this place with a virus or medicine. But this could be where medicine gets changed forever. The story of a small AI company has proved that in the early stages of the battle against COVID-19. How did they do it, and what does it mean for doctors and patients?
很难将此地与疫情和医药联系起来，但此处有望永久改变行医方式。一家小型人工智能公司在中国抗疫初期证明了这一点。他们是如何做到的，这对医生和患者意味着什么呢？
"So basically, what AI can do is to help doctors and hospitals identify suspected COVID-19 patients quickly from all the patients that they are actually examining," said Chen Kuan, Founder and CEO of Infervision. "So we can identify that this guy is actually highly suspected of the virus. And we should actually quarantine, start the social observation, and we can actually start to do the testing."
“人工智能能做到的，就是迅速地找出新冠肺炎疑似患者，从所有被检测的人中识别出来，这样就可以确定某人是否为高度疑似病例，然后便可以隔离患者，启动医学观察，并对其进行检测。”在采访中，推想科技创始人兼首席执行官陈宽这样解释到。
In an interview with CGTN, Li Dasheng, Director of Department of Radiology at Hadian Hospital in Beijing also shared his experience using AI product to help speed up the testing process. "A CT scan usually generates 300 to 400 images.It takes at least 10 to 15 minutes to go from reading the scan to issuing a report. But with the algorithm, the doctor only needs 10 to 20 seconds to know the number and locations of lesions in the lungs before informing the patient," he said.
北京市海淀医院影像科主任李大胜也和CGTN分享了自己使用人工智能产品的经历：“一个普通的CT下来之后，连续保存的图像大概有300多幅，300幅到400幅左右。常规的一般看一个胸部CT扫描的话，要完整从看完到写完报告 怎么也得需要10到15分钟。但有了处理的人工智能软件之后，起码它在十几秒钟或者二十几秒，他就可以把肺炎大概的病灶多少和分布 都能告诉你。“
It didn't take long for Infervision’s algorithm to prove itself in the fight against the new virus. Hospitals in China, including specialized clinics, quickly put the new tool into use. And as progress was made in China, the technology was adopted soon around the world. In just two months, Japan, Italy, Germany and the U.S. were also using the algorithm.
不久之后，推想科技的人工智能算法就应用于抗疫，并证明有效，国内各家医院，包括专科诊所，迅速采用了这个功能强大的新工具。随着国内疫情形势逐渐好转，这项技术被迅速应用在国际抗疫前线。在短短两个月内，日本、意大利、德国和美国纷纷采用该算法。
Chen told CGTN a story that implicated the value of this technology: "When our European team were crossing the border of Italy, we were actually stopped by the patrol. And then what happens was that we have to show them the letters from the hospitals indicating that they want to use our AI. And then the Italian patrol, the military, said that ’Thank you very much for helping Italy in this very dangerous time.' So I think this is exactly how AI technology should be utilized so that you can help to staunch the spread of the virus. And the technologies itself can be spread even faster than the virus, which I think is the greatest beauty of this technology."
“当我们的欧洲团队入境意大利时，被边检拦了下来。随后，他们要求我方提供医院的证明信，证明医院希望采用我们的人工智能技术。然后，意大利的边检军人表示，“非常感谢你们在危难时刻援助意大利。”因此我认为这是人工智能技术的正确应用方式，用来帮助遏制疫情传播。而且科技的传播速度甚至比病毒还要快。我认为这也体现了科技之美，”陈宽强调。
There are few moments in history that a new technology gets repurposed in so little time to serve so many. But that tells us the part what AI could and would play in our lives.
历史上很少看到一项新技术，能在如此短的时间内被重新定位，并造福于广大人民群众。这体现了人工智能在生活中能够发挥的作用。
It is powerful, it is fast and most of important of all, it is still evolving. The technology was not born in China, but it has been embraced by the Chinese. Many see COVID-19 as a destroyer, but it can also be an imperative for humans to upgrade their armor against new opponents, whenever and wherever they arise.
它功能强大，运行快速，关键还能不断演进这项技术并非诞生于中国，但得到了中国人民的广泛认可，许多人认为新冠肺炎是毁灭的化身。但它也促使人类不断优化人类自身的护甲，应对随时随地可能出现的新敌人。