The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The first few months of 2020 have profoundly changed the way we live our lives and carry out our daily activities. Although the widespread use of futuristic robotaxis and self-driving commercial vehicles has not yet become a reality, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different fields. We have witnessed the equivalent of two years of digital transformation compressed into just a few months. Whether it is in tracing epidemiological peaks or in transacting contactless payments, the impact of these developments has been almost immediate, and a window has opened up on what is to come. Here we analyze and discuss how AI can support us in facing the ongoing pandemic. Despite the numerous and undeniable contributions of AI, clinical trials and human skills are still required. Even if different strategies have been developed in different states worldwide, the fight against the pandemic seems to have found everywhere a valuable ally in AI, a global and open-source tool capable of providing assistance in this health emergency. A careful AI application would enable us to operate within this complex scenario involving healthcare, society and research.

Fake news on Social Media: the Impact on Society

“…The aim of this research was to carry out an investigation on the impact of FN on the society, the use of SM as a platform for cascading of information and news. Thus, this study further explore the conceptual model of disease triangle (Piccialli et al, 2021 ) which identify FN as infectious pathogen in Fig. 1 (SM platforms host and spread FN), without the societal acceptance, it is difficult to cascade information and news.…”

“…In previous studies, SM platforms are increasingly changing business activities and strategies used in positioning new products and brands, also leading to mis-information in the society (Modgil et al, 2021 ; Parra et al, 2021 ; Piccialli et al, 2021 ), also analyzed the SM platforms as the environment for business and social transactions focusing on capturing the largest audiences for information cascading, this further the spread of FN through the use of cascading tools available on SM. According to (Dwivedi et al, 2018 ; Kim & Dennis, 2019 ; Kim et al, 2019 ), cascading of FN through the use of SM platforms is growing faster than anticipated.…”

Data-Driven Analytics Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in the Era of COVID-19: An Insightful Review of Recent Developments

“…This concise overview will enable future research in this area with clear directions/gaps. Specifically, we highlighted the data related challenges that need to be resolved to yield higher adoption of AI, as AI has already demonstrated effectiveness in many aspects related to the COVID-19 [100][101][102][103][104][105]. Thus, we summarize AI use based on actual data used/processed, AI models applied, and purpose/service achieved in COVID-19 context in Figure 14.…”

Ethical Issues in AI-enabled Disease Surveillance: Perspectives from Global Health

“…Making AI systems transparent, fair, secure and inclusive is essential in this context, but how these systems are interpreted and operationalized can vary [6]. The increasingly promoted responsible AI frameworks have a potentially important application in disease surveillance, as touched on in the recent literature focusing on the COVID pandemic [56 60, 61].…”

“…AI as a component of global health surveillance systems is relatively new and largely bounded by both specific applications and geographies [5][6]. Global health itself is built on national public health actions and institutions, primarily concerning population-wide interventions.…”