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Medicine Microsoft

CDC Launches Coronavirus Self-Checker Chatbot With the Help of Microsoft (inputmag.com) 31

Posted by msmash from the fighting-this,-together dept.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collaborated with Microsoft to introduce the Coronavirus Self-Checker, a tool designed to better help you understand the disease which has caused over 10,000 confirmed cases in the United States and claimed at least 187 lives. From a report: The chatbot is another step Microsoft has taken to educate the public about the viral outbreak, after developing home-testing kits, a COVID-19 tracker tool, and a $100 million donation for global coronavirus research. At the very beginning of the chat, the bot asks if you are sick or if you have been in touch with someone who is sick. The conversation cuts short if you select no, noting that this "Coronavirus Self-Checker system is for those who may be sick." Although a considerable amount of data indicates that many COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic or presymptomatic, the bot is specifically for individuals displaying visible symptoms of the virus.
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CDC Launches Coronavirus Self-Checker Chatbot With the Help of Microsoft More

CDC Launches Coronavirus Self-Checker Chatbot With the Help of Microsoft

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  • Smarterchild (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 20, 2020 @03:32PM (#59854132)
    Glad they scraped that old code off SVN and gave it its final swan song.

  • I wonder what back-end this is running on. And NO, I didn't read anything beyond the summary.

    Alexa?
    Do I have covid?

    • Nah, it's Microsoft, whose AI team released Tay [ieee.org], the racist twitter chatbot.

      What that means is, the chatbot will be an insulting, far-right hate-spewing friendly maniac. Expect responses like this:

      Q: "Chatbot, do I have coronavirus?"
      A: "I hope so and I hope you die and please have a nice day!"

      Q: "Chatbot, I have a sore throat"
      A: "You know who else had a sore throat? Hitler. Tell me, how do you feel about your sore throat?

      Q: "Chatbot, where can I get tested?"
      A: "Please line up with all the other people to be culled into a nice happy waiting room."

      • Q: "Chatbot, I have a sore throat"
        A: "You know who else had a sore throat? Hitler. Tell me, how do you feel about your sore throat?

        Hmmm. I would think that the response would be "Stop sucking cocks infected with Gonorrhea"

  • Works great (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday March 20, 2020 @03:35PM (#59854142)

    Tried it out, it asked if I was ill, when I said no it responded with:

    Sounds like you are feeling ok

    This Coronavirus Self-Checker system is for those who may be sick.

    A little snooty but looks like it's working perfectly!

    • Tried it out, it asked if I was ill, when I said no it responded with:

      Sounds like you are feeling ok

      This Coronavirus Self-Checker system is for those who may be sick.

      A little snooty but looks like it's working perfectly!

      So they've implemented Eliza for covid?

    • So you're saying it's got about the same personality as Clippy?

    • beats going to the doctor.

      Sounds like you are feeling OK.
      (receives bill for $783 dollars the next week)

    • A little snooty but looks like it's working perfectly!

      It looks like it failed the Turing Test [wikipedia.org]...

    • Sounds like your feeling ok. For now.

      *evil AI snicker*

  • There are no unique differentiating symptoms of this coronavirus that can be described with "chat". That's why we have lab tests.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      In principle it could ask about a range of symptoms and then say whether or not it figured you should contact a real doctor.

      Yeah, there's no diagnostic test for COVID-19 that it could do, but it could eliminate many things. No, a sore toe doesn't mean you've got COVID.

  • Although a considerable amount of data indicates that many COVID-19 carriers are asymptomatic or presymptomatic, the bot is specifically for individuals displaying visible symptoms of the virus.

    That is indeed the case. The evolutionary tree computed out of sequenced data from WHO is now published and updated daily: https://nextstrain.org/ncov [nextstrain.org]

    I have the long breakdown on my blog: https://www.fagain.co.uk/node/... [fagain.co.uk]

    The executive summary is that in order to get this tree:

    1. Europe's patient zero was arou

    • Your blog mentions conjunctivitis. Suddenly the local Ophthalmologist practice shut down routine exams, I missed the window for a my contact lens refitting by one day (though they are letting me order a 6mo resupply). Googling COVID-19 and Conjunctivitis shows that yesterday the AAO passed down the recommendation for practices to scale back, and referred to conjunctivitis as being a possible co-indicator.

      Rewind two weeks... I went into that practice with a rather odd case of conjunctivitis. I was diagnose

      • Death is curative of Covid19. If you shoot yourself in the head not only will you be cured, but you will also become immune to re-infection.

    • Thanks for the link, but there's nothing there that proves presymptomatic transmission, though it does show that community spread in Europe started early. The best evidence I've seen is in this article about transmission in germany [nejm.org], but even that seems to imply a small window if any. (I actually think this pattern might be more consistent with a contaminated object because the index patient needed to have been exposed upon leaving China for Germany and not earlier.) If it were transmitted pre-symptoms in

  • Unfortunately, I'm only running Human Home Edition and Microsoft pushed a required update into me. I've been falling asleep and waking up all day. I tried running is safe mode, but ended up just staring into the mirror for, I think, an hour -- my internal clock is all messed up at the moment. Trying to see if I can roll myself back. It's going to be a long weekend.

  • "Have you been tested for Coronavirus?"

    "Yes."

    "What was the result?"

    "Negative."

    "You do not have the Coronavirus. Downloading Windows 10..."
  • So we're quarantining everyone who tests positive. If you're quarantined you and everyone in your household can't work. There's no system to cover your rent, utilities, debt payments or food while you're quarantined. Nor is there one on the horizon. There's been some talk of giving everybody their next year's tax return, but that'll have to be paid back next year.

    Americans are dumb, but they're not that dumb. They're going to start avoiding testing so they can keep their jobs, homes, cars and food.

    Y

  • I tried it, it said I didn't have coronavirus and then it called me the N word.

  • That won't last long. I predict in two days it will be taken off line for being racist and not nice to the snowflakes ...

  • I wonder which of the products (from the companies Bill is invested in manufacture) will be promoted as a miracle remedy by this tool.

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