Since the coronavirus crisis began, researchers and scientists around the world have been investing all their efforts in helping to combat the pandemic; and also to help gather information on people infected by the coronavirus; As we know, the tests are limited and the experts estimate that there is an undetermined number of people who would present mild symptoms or, even, who are asymptomatic, with the potential to transmit the virus to the rest.
That is why we chat today with, perhaps, the two main assets in Spain in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Nuria Oliver, data scientist and commissioner of the Presidency of the Generalitat Valenciana for the Artificial Intelligence Strategy against COVID-19; and Xabi Uribe-Etxebarría, founder and CEO of Sherpa.ai and a leading entrepreneur in the field of artificial intelligence.
Nuria Oliver is a scientist and academic at the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the Data Pop Alliance, a body made up of Stanford University and the MIT Media Lab, where she studied, and is one of the founders of ELLIS, an organization that seeks the excellence in AI research.
Xabi Uribe-Etxebarría is a Basque entrepreneur who has placed his startup, Sherpa.ai, among the most recognized in the world in the field of artificial intelligence. Recognized by CB Insights and Forbes as the only Spanish among the 100 most innovative in the world, and by the prestigious specialized publication Datamation as one of the ten most brilliant companies in the world in AI, along with Google, Amazon or Microsoft. It has incorporated into its ranks one of the creators of Siri, Tom Gruber, and recently added the former right-hand man of Steve Jobs, Joanna Hoffman.
Why are Nuria and Xabi here?
Both have put, in a selfless and altruistic way, their knowledge, their collaborators, their resources, to help in the fight against COVID-19. Nuria is conducting together with a group of international experts a wave of surveys that are carried out with mathematical models and analyzed with algorithms to define how many people are infected by coronavirus and understand how they feel after weeks of confinement. And Xabi has placed his company at the feet of the Basque Government and its health service, Osakidetza, to be able to predict the needs of ICUs seven days in advance, among other things, using its developments and knowledge in artificial intelligence that are recognized in the world.
