A
People are no longer unfamiliar with artificial intelligence (AI), which is reshaping our lives.
1. Smarter analytics
The year of 2020 saw the capability of AI. During the global pandemic(大流行病), people got to follow updates on the number of infected people and the death toll (死亡人数),as well as track the virus thanks to AI. Medical papers related to COVID-19 were published last year, and by applying machine learning to related datasets (数据集), AI will help us spot outbreaks, track contact between infected people, enable more accurate diagnoses (诊断) and, by predicting virus’ possible evolution in the future.
2. Automated detection (自动检测) and prevention
It seems people have gotten used to being scanned by a contactless thermometer (无接触体温计) when walking into a store or shopping mall. They may also have to scan a QR code to record their whereabouts (行踪) and show their green health code to doorkeepers. Facial recognition technology enables the tracing system. Facial recognition has been used by police to detect lockdown breakers, as well as track the movements of individuals displaying symptoms within a crowd.
3. Predicting behavioral changes
The pandemic has brought huge challenges for traditional industries but not to e-commerce. Amazon’s sales during the second quarter of 2020 went up 40 percent compared to the same period of 2019.With the help of AI, businesses have learned more about consumers’ habitual behaviors and personalities during the pandemic. Therefore, in 2021, tools providing organizations with self-service access to this technology will become increasingly prevalent , as small and medium-sized enterprises (企业) seek to compete with the big businesses that have already gone digital.
4. Pandemic prevention
AI is heading toward epidemic (流行病) prediction as the main public health application. According to Forbes, most AI algorithms (算法) are trying to build systems that can accurately predict when and where future outbreaks will take place so that people can take preventive measures to stop them from happening. However, for further accurate predictions, issues such as access to medical datasets need to be solved through global cooperation.
21. In response to COVID-19, AI has played a vital role in the following areas , except
________.
A. keeping the number of infected people and death toll updated
B. predicting accurately when and where future outbreaks will occur
C. detecting lockdown breakers
D. recording people’s tracks by scanning their QR code.
22. In order to find target customers and increase sales, businesses can turn to_________.
A. smarter analytics B. automated detection and prevention
C. predicting behavioral changes D. pandemic prevention
23. What does the underlined word “ prevalent” in Para 4 mean?
A. diverse B. valid C. portable D. popular
24.What is the article mainly about?
A. AI is on the way.
B. AI is a double-edged sword.
C. AI is transforming our lives.
D. AI is applied to all walks of life.
