The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a chatbot to be made available to millions of people through WhatsApp.
The chatbot will provide trusted information on the COVID-19 situation through a messaging service in collaboration with Facebook and WhatsApp.
To launch the service, message +41 79 475 22 09 and send the word ‘hi’ for the chat to begin.
The messaging service will provide the latest news and information on coronavirus including details on symptoms and how people can protect themselves and others. It also provides the latest situation reports and numbers in real time to help government decision-makers protect the health of their populations.
The WHO Health Alert was developed by South Africa’s Praekelt.Org, using Turn machine learning technology which was developed to help social impact organisations to have personal guided conversations that improve lives at scale.
Debbie Rogers, Praekelt.org Managing Director “The Turn technology has been in development for the past two years and it’s because of this that we’ve been able to respond so quickly in a time of crisis.”
Gustav Praekelt, Praekelt.org founder and co-founder of Turn.io “An amazing collaborative effort between WHO, WhatsApp, and the teams at Praekelt.org and Turn has resulted in getting WHO Health Alert off the ground and critical information to people across the globe.”
