If this really works, this could be the biggest news of the year. Assuming they get FDA approval for this app, we would suddenly have a free, instantly scalable, instantly available test that catches the vast majority of true positives. You could very easily set these up at all public places and require people to check before entry. If that happens you don’t even have to require people to self-test at home, they’ll do it voluntarily to know in advance whether they’ll be let in at their destination.<p>The final and most difficult step would be effective quarantine of infected individuals, some of whom are likely to try and go to work anyway etc.<p>But even if you assume nothing more than voluntary self-quarantine etc, I would expect this to drive R0 below 1 very quickly, as the vast majority of infected would stay home and thus cease to spread the disease.<p>Finally, if all of the above where to come true, I think this could go down in history as the first truly life-changing AI discovery, and potentially one of the biggest watershed moments in recent history.<p>Obviously we’re not there yet, but I am very optimistic and excited after reading the story.