Artificial intelligence may be able to detect and predict severity of new COVID-19 variants, according to a study published Jan. 2 in PNAS Nexus.
The latest variant experts have been watching, JN.1, was first detected in September and quickly spread throughout the U.S., accounting for the majority of COVID-19 cases by December. JN.1 has not been found to be more severe, but a mutation of its spike protein may make the variant more easily transmissible.
Now, researchers have developed an AI algorithm trained on data from 9 million SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences found across 30 different countries to understand more about viral transmission as well as the variant's pandemic-potential.
"[T]his study leverages variant-specific genetic characteristics together with epidemiological information to systematically predict the future spread trajectory of newly detected variants." the authors wrote of their findings.
So far, the technology has proven to successfully detect 72.8% of variants after a single week of use in a country that will likely lead to 1,000 or more deaths within a three-month period. Researchers say the algorithm's detection rate improves to an 80% successful detection rate when used for two weeks of observation.