Powerful new AI can predict people’s attitudes to vaccines

A powerful new tool in artificial intelligence is able to predict whether someone is willing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The predictive system uses a small set of data from demographics and personal judgments such as aversion to risk or loss. The findings frame a new technology that could have broad applications for predicting mental health and result in more effective public health campaigns. A team led by researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Northwestern University created a predictive model using an integrated system of mathematical equations describing the lawful patterns in reward and aversion judgment with machine learning. “We used a small number of variables and minimal computational resources to make predictions,” said lead author Nicole Vike, a senior research associate in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. “COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last pandemic we see in the next decades. Having a new form of AI for prediction in public...