“Hey Smartphone, Am I Ill?” Detecting Diseases From The Voice

As humans, we learn from what we perceive with our senses in our daily lives. Computers can have similar learning capabilities, allowing them to learn from what they “see” and “hear” and to use the knowledge they learn to solve future tasks. This ability is called artificial intelligence (AI). Devices equipped with AI, such as smartphones, smartwatches, or smart speakers, have now become our everyday companions. Among other things, they can listen to us and answer our questions. This type of technology is also playing a growing role in medicine. In this article, we explain how a computer can figure out whether the sound of a person’s voice or the way they speak indicates a certain disease. We demonstrate this using the example of detecting COVID-19, and discuss both problems and opportunities that arise when using AI for diagnosis.