Coronavirus: Israeli AI start-up says it has tools for the Chinese, Hong Kong governments to help people in distress
- Cobwebs Technologies can help monitor mentions of the virus on the web, tweets or posts asking for assistance, or to locate people in case of emergency
- Company says its tools came in handy during Hurricane Harvey, which struck the US in 2017, by helping to locate people who were seeking urgent help
An Israeli artificial intelligence company says that it can help the Chinese and Hong Kong governments track SOS requests and people in close contact with patients affected by the deadly coronavirus. But there are concerns that the data collected will be used to track and monitor individuals.
Cobwebs Technologies, whose platform is built to trawl the darkest and deepest corners of the internet for signs of fraudulent and criminal activities, can also help monitor mentions of the virus on the web, tweets or posts asking for assistance where phone landlines are down, or to locate people in case of emergency.
“It can even see if certain people visited Wuhan over the past two to three weeks,” said Ariel Talbi, managing director of Asia-Pacific and Middle East at Cobwebs. “If there is someone who has been examined by a health care agency, attempting to find friends or relatives that might be in contact with him recently, it can help in some cases.”
Citing an example, Talbi said its tools came in handy during Hurricane Harvey, which struck Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, by helping to locate people who were seeking urgent help.
According to Cobwebs’ website, the company’s open-sourced web intelligence is used by national security agencies, law enforcement agencies and corporate security departments. The company describes itself as a “machine learning and artificial intelligence powered web intelligence and investigation platform with strong natural language processing capabilities”.