Scientists have developed a new smartphone app that may accurately detect Covid-19 infection in people’s voices by using artificial intelligence (AI).
The AI model used in the research is more accurate than rapid antigen tests or lateral flow tests and is cheap, quick and easy to use, the researchers said.
The method can be used in low-income countries where PCR tests are expensive and difficult to distribute, they said.
The finding was presented on Monday at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
According to the researchers, the AI model is accurate 89 per cent of the time, whereas the accuracy of lateral flow tests varies widely depending on the brand.
Also, lateral flow tests are considerably less accurate at detecting Covid-19 infection in people who show no symptoms, they said.
“These promising results suggest that simple voice recordings and fine-tuned AI algorithms can potentially achieve high precision in determining which patients have Covid-19 infection,” said Wafaa Aljbawi, a researcher at the Maastricht University, The Netherlands.