The pandemic is emptying call centers. AI chatbots are swooping in

This is what we know so far about how covid-19 affects the rest of the body 

The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 05.15.20 Good morning! Today: the pandemic is accelerating the switch to AI in call centers, and all we know so far about how covid affects the body beyond the lungs. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The pandemic is emptying call centers. AI chatbots are swooping in   What’s happening: While call centers have long been a frontier of workplace automation, the pandemic has accelerated the process. Organizations under pressure are more willing to try new tools. Firms like IBM and Google, keen to take advantage, are sweetening the incentives. Over the last few years, advances in natural-language processing have also dramatically improved on the clunky automated call systems of the past. Why: The goal of the systems is to get as many queries as possible answered by the virtual agents before any calls are handed over to humans. This reduces the burden on call centers and the wait times for users. It also reduces the need for expensive human agents. The outlook: Once adopted, these systems will likely be here to stay, proving their value through their ease of use and affordability. But perhaps the good news is call center jobs won’t be eliminated entirely: algorithms are still far from understanding the full context and nuance of conversation, so rarer cases will have to be reserved for the more capable hands of humans. Some matters are also too sensitive to outsource to AI. Read the full story.  —Karen Hao This is what we know so far about how covid-19 affects the rest of the body Covid-19 is primarily a respiratory infection that attacks the lungs, making it harder for patients to breathe and get enough oxygen to the rest of the body. Pneumonia and other respiratory conditions can quickly set in, eventually leading to death if the body cannot fight off the infection. However, it attacks the body in other unexpected ways. Here’s what we’ve learned. The blood. There’s mounting evidence the inflammation that arises from a covid-19 infection leads to blood clots that can do serious harm. One of the biggest examples is “happy hypoxia,” which doctors so far suspect is caused by blood clots in the lungs.  The brain. The most severe effect the virus might have on the brain is a stroke most probably caused by—you guessed it—blood clots in arteries leading to the brain. This is happening even in young patients. But the virus may also be causing some milder neurological symptoms—most notably a loss of taste and smell. One study found that 65% of those who tested positive for coronavirus reported that phenomenon.  The heart. Besides clot-related complications caused by blockages in blood vessels, covid-19 seems to exacerbate stress to the heart and wear down cardiac muscle through a lack of oxygen if the lungs are struggling, or as a result of inflammation.  The kidneys. Studies from China and Italy early in the outbreak found that about 25 to 27% of hospitalized patients who died experienced injury to their kidneys. Why this is happening isn’t clear. The immune system. As previously reported, some covid-19 patients are hit by what’s called a cytokine storm: the body’s inflammatory response (meant to help clear out infected cells) goes into overdrive and starts attacking healthy tissue and organs, even after the infection has been resolved. There’s no hard data yet for how many covid-19 patients are affected, but one study suggests blood thinners might be useful for treating it. Read the full story.   —Neel V. Patel We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + This man did an annual review Zoom call with his dogs.   + A cafe in Germany is asking customers to wear swimming pool noodle hats to enforce distancing.   + Watch this well-reviewed version of Much Ado About Nothing.   + Beer bottles can make good instruments.   + You can download GTA for free (if the website isn’t down.)   + Learn how to make Sesame Street rice krispie treats from two rather adorable little boys.  The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Coronavirus spread from one singer in a choir to 87% of them Singing (especially indoors) looks like another very risky activity. (CNN)   + Loud talking could leave coronavirus in the air for up to 14 minutes. (TR) 2 Coronavirus research is being weaponized You should tread very carefully with preprint papers. (NYT $)   + The danger of rushing through clinical trials. (New Yorker $) 3 The pandemic is terrible news for globalization 🌎 We should be worried about what might take its place. (The Economist $) 4 Roche’s antibody test seems to be reasonably accurate It managed to identify everyone who’d been infected when evaluated by a UK health agency. (BBC) 5 Why covid-19 is especially dangerous for the elderly They are at higher risk of catching it, suffer more severely from it, and many struggle with social distancing. (Wired)   + Why aren’t we doing more to protect them? (New York Magazine) 6 Covid is throwing corporate email etiquette into disarray 📧 What’s oversharing? What’s too cold? Argh! (WSJ $) 7 The QAnon conspiracy theory is only gaining more believers This is chilling. (The Atlantic)   + The people who made “Plandemic” go viral. (Vice) 8 Thank god for memes You can take our lives, but you cannot take our silly internet humor. (WP $) 9 People are making new friends on Zoom  Fandoms have nowhere else to go right now. (The Verge) 10 Influencers are doing sex work online to make ends meet Quite a few of them were—whisper it—doing this already anyway. (Elle) Our journalists are tracking down the next life-changing technologies before they’re even developed. We ask that you support our dedication to trustworthy technology journalism with a subscription today. Quote of the day “There are a lot of reasons for people entertaining conspiracy theories, not all of them because they literally believe it to be true.” —Psychologist Rob Brotherton explains why some people might report that the US is run by lizard people to The Atlantic. Top image credit: Getty Please send rice krispie treats to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? 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