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Data Science and AI in the Age of COVID-19

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Data Science and AI in the Age of COVID-19 Data science and AI in the age of COVID-19 Reflections on the response of the UK’s data science and AI community to the COVID-19 pandemic Executive summary Contents This report summarises the findings of a science activity during the pandemic. The Foreword 4 series of workshops carried out by The Alan message was clear: better data would Turing Institute, the UK’s national institute enable a better response. Preface 5 for data science and artificial intelligence (AI), in late 2020 following the 'AI and data Third, issues of inequality and exclusion related to data science and AI arose during 1. Spotlighting contributions from the data science 7 science in the age of COVID-19' conference. and AI community The aim of the workshops was to capture the pandemic. These included concerns about inadequate representation of minority the successes and challenges experienced + The Turing's response to COVID-19 10 by the UK’s data science and AI community groups in data, and low engagement with during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the these groups, which could bias research 2. Data access and standardisation 12 community’s suggestions for how these and policy decisions. Workshop participants challenges might be tackled. also raised concerns about inequalities 3. Inequality and exclusion 14 in the ease with which researchers could Four key themes emerged from the access data, and about a lack of diversity 4. Communication 17 workshops. within the research community (and the potential impacts of this). 5. Conclusions 20 First, the community made many contributions to the UK’s response to Fourth, communication difficulties Appendix A. Workshop participants and Organising 22 the pandemic, via national organisations, surfaced. While there have been excellent Committee research institutes and the healthcare examples of science communication sector. Researchers responded to the crisis throughout the pandemic, participants Appendix B. Workshop themes and reports 24 with ingenuity and determination, and the highlighted the challenges of result was a range of new projects and communicating research findings and collaborations that informed the pandemic uncertainties to policy makers and the response and opened up new areas for public in a timely, accurate and clear future study. manner. Second, the single most consistent In this report, we outline the workshop message across the workshops was the participants’ reflections and suggestions importance – and at times lack – of robust relating to each of these themes, with the and timely data. Problems around data aim of enabling the data science and AI availability, access and standardisation community to respond better to the ongoing spanned the entire spectrum of data pandemic, and future emergencies. Edited by Inken von Borzyskowski Anjali Mazumder Assistant Professor of AI and Justice and Human Political Science, University Rights Theme Lead, The Alan College London Turing Institute Bilal Mateen Michael Wooldridge Clinical Data Science Fellow, Turing Fellow and Programme The Alan Turing Institute; Co-Director for Artificial Clinical Technology Lead, Intelligence, The Alan Turing Wellcome Trust Institute Workshop theme leads Mark Briers (The Alan Turing Institute), Tao Cheng (UCL), Spiros Denaxas (UCL), John Dennis (University of Exeter), Sabina Leonelli (University of Exeter), David Leslie (The Alan Turing Institute), Marion Mafham (University of Oxford), Ed Manley (University of Leeds), Karyn Morrissey (University of Exeter), Deepak Parashar (University of Warwick), Jim Weatherall (AstraZeneca) Foreword Preface The COVID-19 pandemic has seen scientific and non-experts – contain valuable reflections At the end of 2019, a new highly infectious pharmaceutical interventions. The response research move into public discourse in and suggestions for how the data science virus, now known as severe acute respiratory was remarkable for its breadth of engagement unparalleled ways. Across the scientific and AI community might prepare for future syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), across disciplines, as demonstrated by spectrum, researchers have stepped up, the emergencies. Indeed, the Turing has already was identified as the underlying pathogen the range of backgrounds of our workshop data science and AI community included, to begun a large-scale project1 which aims to for a series of unexplained pneumonias participants and the diverse set of insights that work alongside clinicians, policy makers and boost societal, governmental and economic (subsequently termed coronavirus disease they generated. the government at the heart of the response, resilience to shocks such as this pandemic. 2019, or COVID-19), clustered in Wuhan, directly impacting on our daily lives. China. By 30 January 2020, COVID-19 had Goals, origins and structure of the report Ahead of the G7 summit in the UK in June become so prevalent that the World Health Data science and AI is an inherently 2021, the leading scientific bodies of the G7 Organisation (WHO) declared it a Public Health This report was commissioned by The Alan interdisciplinary community, and our activities nations (the ‘Science 7’) recently published a Emergency of International Concern – the Turing Institute with the aim of reflecting on at The Alan Turing Institute in response to the call for more ‘data readiness’ in preparation WHO’s highest level of alarm. As we finish the UK's data science and AI response to the 2 pandemic reflect this. Our researchers have for future health emergencies. This is a this report in spring 2021, the disease itself pandemic. The Turing is the UK’s national developed algorithms to monitor pedestrian timely amplification of the message in the has claimed over three million lives globally, institute for data science and AI, and partners density and ensure social distancing on the Turing’s report about the need for increased with more than 170 million confirmed cases, with many of the UK’s leading universities and streets of London; combined NHS datasets to data access and sharing, at a time when the and many more affected by the impacts of research centres to advance the country’s help answer clinical questions about the effects pandemic continues to have catastrophic lockdowns and the unprecedented disruption capacity and competitiveness in these areas, of COVID-19; explored what makes people impacts around the world. to the global economy. The UK has now been with the overall mission of changing the world vulnerable to health-related misinformation; through two waves of the virus, with infections, for the better. and improved the accuracy of the NHS My thanks to the editors for initiating and delivering this report, and to all the workshop hospitalisations and fatalities in the second The Turing’s goals in undertaking this work COVID-19 app. (See page 10 for more details of wave exceeding those in the first. our response.) theme leads and participants. We hope it were twofold: will be a valued contribution to the ongoing While pandemics appear to have occurred This report has been edited by four researchers discussions about the data science and AI 1. To capture the initiatives and resources that throughout human history, the COVID-19 have been developed by the data science and with backgrounds spanning AI, data science, response, alongside notable reports from the pandemic is unique in one important respect. 3 AI community during the pandemic. public policy, human rights and medicine. They Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, the Ada It is the first pandemic to occur in the age of 4 have synthesised the views of 96 attendees to Lovelace Institute, the Royal Society’s DELVE data science and AI: the first pandemic in a 2. To gather the experiences and insights of 5 6 a series of workshops held at the end of 2020, initiative and the Royal Statistical Society, world of deep learning, ubiquitous computing, this community during the pandemic – what which aimed to provide a snapshot of the uses among others. smartphones, wearable technology and social worked well, what didn’t, and how we as of data science and AI during the pandemic, media. It is thus unsurprising that governments a community could respond better to this and what we as a community can learn from The Turing looks forward to continuing its role to convene and deliver activities and across the globe, including the UK’s, looked pandemic and future emergencies. the experience. to data to inform their responses and help reflections in response to this pandemic, and in The work has its origins in a one-day While this represents a small part of what preparation for other crises. navigate challenges. The goal was to limit the spread of the disease and its medical, social conference 'AI and data science in the age will surely be a larger reflection exercise to of COVID-19,'7 which was held virtually by the come, the central findings – issues of data and economic consequences. As such, the Adrian Smith UK government stated that its policies were Turing on 24 November 2020 and featured talks access and quality; inequality among both the from some of the leading voices in the UK’s research community and wider society; and Institute Director and Chief Executive “guided by the science”, and later that ending The Alan Turing Institute lockdowns depended on “data, not dates”. response to COVID-19. The free event attracted communication difficulties between experts over 1,700 registrants from 35 countries, from In response, many members of the UK’s data academia, industry, the public sector and the science and AI community stepped forward, general public. spearheading initiatives that they hoped would assist the domestic and international response. A series of themed, virtual workshops followed These initiatives came from individual in November and December 2020. The academics, university research groups, the invitation to participate in these workshops healthcare sector, national institutes and was widely circulated within the UK academic others. They involved not just experts on community, via social media and the Turing’s virology and epidemiological modelling, but network of partners and affiliates.
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