12:04 p.m. ET, April 2, 2020
IBM's new virtual assistant will answer questions about Covid-19
From CNN Business' Clare Duffy
IBM (
IBM) has created a new tool within its Watson artificial intelligence system to help government agencies, health care organizations and schools field questions about coronavirus.
The tool, called Watson Assistant for Citizens, is designed to get data and information to citizens quickly -- and potentially cut down on wait times for calls to local hospitals and other authorities.
For example, the City of Lancaster in California is using the tool to answer questions from citizens about coronavirus symptoms and what to do in case of infection.
The Watson Assistant for Citizens draws guidance from national sources like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as from local sources for information like school closures, town news and state documents.
The tool can be deployed over the phone or online, and it uses
IBM's Natural Language Processing technology to understand people's questions.
IBM is offering the Watson Assistant free for 90 days, and it's already being deployed in several US states plus the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.