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Authorities in 23 countries across five continents have sought access to contact tracing technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, the companies announced on Wednesday as they released the initial version of their system. (Dave, 5/20)

The tech giants, which make the world’s dominant smartphone operating systems, jointly developed the protocol for apps that can use Bluetooth signals from mobile devices to identify those that have been near each other. U.S. states including North Dakota, Alabama and South Carolina, as well as 22 countries, have requested and received access to the newly released technology, the companies said. (Haggin, 5/20)

Wednesday's release includes the common code that software developers can use to create so-called contact-tracing apps for state and national governments that employ Bluetooth and other features on people's iPhones and Android smartphones. But since public health agencies must build the apps, there could be a delay before they're available for download. The release incorporates feedback from hundreds of conversations with public health agencies, government officials, academics, nonprofits and and privacy experts. Public health authorities can customize the system and combine it with data that users input voluntarily, the companies said. (Ravindranath and Overly, 5/20)

Artificial intelligence has shown an increasing ability to detect and diagnose eye diseases by analyzing medical images. Now a new system developed by Google and British doctors takes a significant leap forward by predicting which patients with a common condition are most likely to lose their sight. The new AI, described in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature, is designed to predict imminent risk of total vision loss in patients with age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the developed world. The paper reports that the computer outperformed most eye specialists in determining which patients were most likely to lose sight in both eyes. (Ross, 5/18)