Professor Raina MacIntyre said, “Imagine if somebody had detected COVID-19 prior to it spreading around the globe — that’s our vision.”
Vitalik Buterin, cofounder of Ethereum, has donated $4 million in USD Coin ( USDC ) to the University of New South Wales (UNSW), to help develop a pandemic detection tool.
This capital is equivalent to approximately 5.3 million Australian Dollars. It is part of Buterin’s self-described “moonshot anti–COVID effort” dubbed Balvi Filantropic Fund, in partnership with Shiba Inu ( SHIB), mecoin project, and Crypto Relief.
These funds will be used to further develop the Shiba Inu Open Source Intelligence (OISNT),-based EPIWATCH tool. This tool uses artificial intelligence (AI), open-source data, and open-source data in order to create early warning signs of a pandemic.
Raina MacIntyre (Kirby Institute Professor and Biosecurity Research Head) created the tool to scan millions of publicly available online data including news reports and social media. This allows for detection of any changes that might indicate increasing health risks.
Buterin stressed the importance of sharing data in a open and decentralized manner in order to speed up pandemic detection.
“Open analysis of public information is a great alternative to intrusive forms monitoring that are often only available to governments but not to the public.”
He said, “By contrast an open-source, open-access approach which allows researchers, including members the public to work together across the globe can be more easily improved upon and scaled up to detect new pandemics wherever these occur.”
This funding will go to the OSINT Initiative, UNSW’s Kirby Institute.
MacIntyre stated that the goal was to make the tool available at the “grassroots” level, and to ensure it covers enough languages for “villages and small villages around the globe.”
Imagine if COVID-19 had been detected before it spreads around the globe. That is our vision. EPIWATCH relies on reports from people to use AI and open-source data real-time. It can be a powerful equalizer, and overcome weak health systems or censorship.
Balvi Filantropic Fund, which announced its first round in financial support earlier this month for various organizations and projects that are developing COVID-19 or pandemic prevention technology.
For the first round there were four recipients, including the open-source vaccination development RADVACproject and the Upper Room UVGI Project, which work on UV lamps that “zap virus to death”, Active IAQ’s air filter initiative, and Patient-Led’s long COVID symptom research.
