Humanly impossible to analyse global data on Covid-19 without AI: Justice Prathiba Singh

There is no humanly possible way to analyse the global data emanating from the Covid-19 virus without the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which can be an efficient tool in finding a fast and effective solution to the unprecedented pandemic, said Justice Prathiba M Singh of the Delhi High Court on Thursday.

Justice Singh said the sheer magnitude of analysis of this data can be imagined by considering the large number of players and entities, who are involved in the diagnosis, management, treatment, prevention and cure of this disease.

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Speaking at a webinar on ‘Intersection of AI, Copyright and COVID’ organised by Legitquest, which is an online legal research platform with Indian case laws, the judge said during the outbreak of COVID-19, reports have been received in respect of various strains of the virus, which have affected people.

“The strains are not identical and neither are the symptoms nor the intensity of the disease. While research is taking place in separate pockets across the world, there is no humanly possible way to analyse the global data emanating from the virus without the use of AI,” Justice Singh said.

When intelligence is embedded in a machine, not naturally but by enabling it in the form of input, analysis and output, it is machine intelligence or AI.

She added that diagnostic laboratories, government departments doing contact-tracing, various applications and the data collected by them, medical records of all those persons who have undergone testing, nature of treatment given in different parts of the world, mortality and recovery data, quantities of masks and PPE kits being used to predict the required demand and to correlate this with production – all this data cannot be analysed without the power of AI.

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“Thus, AI can be an extremely efficient tool in finding a fast and effective solution to this unprecedented pandemic outbreak,” Justice Singh said, adding that the global community is conscious of the power of AI and various steps have been taken to facilitate the use of AI for the protection of public health.

She said as long as the data is not copyright protected, it can be used for analysis and research and for providing positive outcome.

Regarding the Interface between Intellectual Property rights (IPR) and Artificial Intelligence, the judge said IP can be a barrier, which shields data from being used by AI softwares and IPR can be used to protect the outcomes of AI.

“Thus, IP rights can be both a sword and a shield while dealing with AI. To ensure that IP is not a barrier, it is important to make access to copyrighted databases easy and possible. Organisations across the world are conscious of the need for making copyrighted databases easily available. Various endeavours have been made by right-holders to not insist on IP rights during the COVID-19 outbreak, Justice Singh said.

She said the interface between AI and law is the one that could provide a very effective solution for expedited adjudication of certain categories of cases where human intervention can be minimal.

“Adequate controls can be placed to ensure that AI is used just as digital technologies for greater efficiency, better solutions– with a human face,” she said.