01-03-2025
How AI could help to prepare for future pandemics according to Oxford scientists
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to help society prepare for future pandemics, researchers from the University of Oxford say.
Scientists from across the globe, including Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe, have outlined how AI can change the landscape of infectious disease research and improve preparedness for pandemics.
The study highlights the importance of safety, accountability, and ethics in the use of AI for infectious disease research.
The researchers are calling for a collaborative and transparent approach in terms of datasets and AI models.
Lead author Professor Moritz Kraemer, from the University of Oxford's Pandemic Sciences Institute, said: "In the next five years, AI has the potential to transform pandemic preparedness.
The scientists warned against relying solely on AI to deal with the challenges of a pandemic (Image: PA) "It will help us better anticipate where outbreaks will start and predict their trajectory, using terabytes of routinely collected climatic and socio-economic data.
"It might also help predict the impact of disease outbreaks on individual patients by studying the interactions between the immune system and emerging pathogens.
"Taken together and if integrated into countries' pandemic response systems, these advances will have the potential to save lives and ensure the world is better prepared for future pandemic threats."
The research identifies several opportunities for AI in pandemic preparedness, including improving current models of disease spread, pinpointing areas of high-transmission potential, and enhancing genetic data in disease surveillance.
AI could also help to determine the properties of new pathogens, predict their traits, and identify whether cross-species jumps are likely, as well as predict which new variants of already-circulating pathogens might arise.
However, the scientists caution against relying solely on AI to solve infectious disease challenges.
They suggest integrating human feedback into AI modelling workflows could help to overcome existing limitations.
The authors also express concerns about the quality and representativeness of training data, the limited accessibility of AI models to the wider community, and potential risks associated with the deployment of black-box models for decision making.
Study author Professor Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said: "While AI has remarkable transformative potential for pandemic mitigation, it is dependent upon extensive worldwide collaboration and from comprehensive, continuous surveillance data inputs."
Study lead author Samir Bhatt, from the University of Copenhagen and Imperial College London, added: "Infectious disease outbreaks remain a constant threat, but AI offers policymakers a powerful new set of tools to guide informed decisions on when and how to intervene."
The authors suggest rigorous benchmarks to evaluate AI models, advocating for strong collaborations between government, society, industry, and academia for the sustainable and practical development of models for improving human health.
