iDeepWise Launches AI-Powered Medical Consultation Platform 'AI Ask Good Doctor' to Support Pandemic Response

The “war” against the novel coronavirus is still ongoing.

As of 00:00 on February 23, a total of 76,396 confirmed cases had been reported nationwide in China, with 52,965 active cases, 2,348 cumulative deaths, and 21,083 cumulative discharges after recovery. There were 5,365 suspected cases and 11,477 severe cases currently under treatment.

The difficulty in containing the outbreak and the relentless rise in case numbers have underscored the urgency of the epidemic response. Under these circumstances, more than 30,000 medical personnel and vast quantities of supplies were dispatched to Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, bringing hope to its residents and drawing widespread attention. Furthermore, artificial intelligence has played a significant role in this technological battle against the epidemic; in particular, the intensified application of AI technologies has established multiple layers of defense to block viral transmission.

As a leader in the field of artificial intelligence, iDeepWise Artificial Intelligence (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “iDeepWise”) has recently developed an online medical consultation service platform called “AI Wenhaoyi” in response to the epidemic. In an exclusive interview with VCBeat, Yang Zhiming, founder of iDeepWise, stated, “Given the high-intensity and fast-paced work of frontline healthcare workers fighting the epidemic, how non-COVID-19 patients can access medical care has become a major issue. The consumer-facing product ‘AI Wenhaoyi’ will effectively address the needs of this population.”

iDeepWise, established in 2015, is an AI company specializing in core technologies of brain-inspired artificial intelligence and deep learning. Its founder, Yang Zhiming, is a serial entrepreneur, holding a Ph.D. from the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is an AI algorithm scientist.

“iDeepWise is my fourth venture, with the goal of exploring ‘multimodal deep semantic understanding’ technology in the field of artificial intelligence, advancing AI from perception to cognition,” said Yang Zhiming. In just a few years since its establishment, iDeepWise has secured several rounds of investment, most recently receiving strategic investment from a well-known enterprise.

Gaining the favor of a company renowned worldwide for its technology is sufficient proof of iDeepWise’s leading position in the industry. Such technological advancement is inseparable from the solid construction of its team. Yang Zhiming introduced that iDeepWise’s team consists of frontline AI scientists and domain business experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, maintaining first-class standards in algorithms, products, and other aspects.

Semantic understanding has long been regarded as the “crown jewel of artificial intelligence.” Leveraging its robust technological capabilities, iDeepWise has developed the “Multimodal Deep Semantic Understanding Engine (iDeepwise.ai) and Human-Computer Interaction Technology,” which can simultaneously comprehend the deep semantics underlying multimodal unstructured data, including text and visual images.

Specifically, iDeepWise’s machine reading comprehension technology for long texts, its free cross-domain multi-turn human-computer dialogue technology, and its semantic understanding technology for multimodal information have positioned the company as an industry leader in the field of AI semantic understanding. Yang Zhiming introduced that this technology has already been deployed in application scenarios such as intelligent vehicles, smartphones, smart homes, and smart healthcare.

“The final frontier of artificial intelligence lies in semantic understanding. While technologies such as speech recognition and image recognition have already reached maturity and are being deployed on a large scale, multimodal deep semantic understanding has yet to achieve widespread adoption,” said Yang Zhiming. He stated that the multimodal deep semantic understanding engine (iDeepwise.ai), combined with human-computer interaction technology, will drive the evolution of AI from ‘perception’ to ‘cognition,’ becoming as ubiquitous as water and electricity and serving as critical infrastructure.

Leveraging its multimodal deep semantic understanding engine (iDeepwise.ai) and human-computer interaction technologies, iDeepWise has also developed multimodal affective computing. Both of these technologies are featured in its newly launched “AI Hao Wen Yi.”

“Our goal is to build ‘AI that understands you,’” said Yang Zhiming.

The Sudden Outbreak: A Major Crisis and an Opportunity for Online HealthcareFollowing the outbreak of COVID-19, nationwide epidemic prevention measures were implemented. To avoid the risk of cross-infection associated with in-person medical visits, people stayed at home, making online consultations undoubtedly the preferred choice for seeking medical care.

Yang Zhiming introduced that it took only about a week to develop and launch “AI Wenhaoyi.” “We have long been focused on B2B services. The launch of ‘AI Wenhaoyi’ is not only an active response to the fight against the epidemic, but also a brand-new endeavor by us in the healthcare sector,” said Yang Zhiming.

Wenhao Yi AI is an artificial intelligence-based health consultation product. In response to the high risks and difficulties associated with in-person medical visits during the pandemic, it provides epidemic prevention and control knowledge, as well as professional and authoritative automated health Q&A covering more than 60 disease areas, including conditions affecting middle-aged and elderly individuals, women and children, and chronic diseases.

Yang Zhiming introduced that, unlike other consultation products, iDeepWise’s “AI Hao Wen Yi” leverages Machine Reading Comprehension (MRC) technology to read, understand, and reason through massive amounts of unstructured knowledge in the health sector. This technology enables autonomous, large-scale reading and learning from tens of millions of web pages and documents. By applying multimodal multi-turn dialogue technology, it accurately interprets user intent, thereby providing real-time health consultations for a wide range of diseases.

Meanwhile, by leveraging affective computing and user profiling, it achieves empathetic care and personalized interaction throughout the consultation process.

“On the AI WenHaoYi platform, we go beyond popularizing medical knowledge by innovatively designing emotional interactions with users. Furthermore, our data sources are professional and reliable, featuring answers from qualified physicians and a foundational database comprising tens of millions of entries. Finally, the platform enables ‘instant quick inquiries,’ providing fast, 7/24 online health consultations so that users can access expert medical advice anytime, anywhere. This saves users’ time while offering efficiency and convenience,” introduced Yang Zhiming.

Furthermore, on the AI Wenhaoyi platform, users can not only view epidemic trends and local conditions, and ask real-time questions related to the epidemic, but also inquire about various health-related issues, thereby achieving comprehensive online healthcare.

After seven days and nights of development, the AI-powered product “Wen Hao Yi” was created. Although the product has already gained considerable recognition, Yang Zhiming stated that it will undergo further optimization and upgrades.

In its second phase, AI Wenhaoyi will introduce new features such as virtual avatars and voice simulation to convey user-required information through multimodal channels.

“It presents a compassionate form of artificial intelligence. As an online medical consultation tool, AI Haowenyi offers more than just dry, automated responses; it provides warm, emotionally supportive replies. With the addition of virtual avatars and simulated voice features, users can also convey health-related information to their family and friends,” said Yang Zhiming.

Furthermore, this product will further strengthen its attribute as an “AI engine powered by authoritative expertise centered on the user.”

Continuous iteration and relentless exploration to drive the practical application of cutting-edge artificial intelligence. Yang Zhiming stated that, building on the industry recognition earned by AI-powered Haowenyi and marketed AI products such as cervical cytology screening solutions, the company will continue to strategically expand and deepen its presence in the healthcare sector.