Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight

Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight
Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight

Hello and welcome to the details of Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight and now with the details

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Estonia has begun piloting tech innovations designed to help handle the coronavirus crisis after the government asked hackers to join the fight against the pandemic. — Reuters pic

TALLINN, March 24 — Estonia has begun piloting tech innovations designed to help handle the coronavirus crisis after the government asked hackers to join the fight against the pandemic.

The government is rolling out a chatbot — a programme that answers questions with web users in real time — across its websites this week to answer questions about the virus, Marten Kaevats, Estonia’s national digital advisor, told AFP.

“Right now, Suve chatbot can answer about 200 questions, but I hope that by the end of the week it will reach 900 to 1,000,” Kaevets said, adding the goal is for the bot to deal with up to 85 per cent of queries to “alleviate the pressure on information hotlines”. 

Although health experts have already publicly responded to the most common questions, the answers are not always easy to find online, prompting people to flood government call centres.

Frequently asked questions include, “What are the coronavirus symptoms?” and “Where can I get tested for the coronavirus?”

A group of hackers known as the eeBot team were commissioned after they developed the bot during a hackathon on March 14.

“The idea of a nationwide chatbot had been in people´s minds already before the crisis, but the hackathon gave us a real chance to bring it to life very quickly,” Michaela Snopkova, eeBot team chief said in a statement.

The hackers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimise the chatbot’s understanding of differently worded questions, she said.

Suve can respond to questions in Estonian and English, with a Russian option coming soon.

The hackers are also looking into a range of other IT tricks, including a time-management app, to help people cope with self-isolation as hundreds of millions are confined to their homes to stem the spread of the virus.

Dubbed “e-stonia”, the EU member of 1.3 million people is known for being a trailblazer in technology. It pioneered e-voting in 2005 and plays host to NATO’s cyber-defence centre.

The country has seen 369 confirmed cases of Covid-19 to date, including seven recoveries. — AFP

These were the details of the news Estonia rolls out hacker innovations in virus fight for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.

It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.

PREV Bomb scare: UK cops evacuate Euston railway station to blow up suspicious package left behind; all clear now
NEXT Explainer: What legal grounds does the UN have to oppose Israel’s ban on UNRWA and what could it mean for Gaza?