1.3.5 Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health in COVID-19
This pandemic has introduced a lot of changes in our routine life and the impact it has made on us are long lasting. The major change it put on the lives is to maintain social distancing. Due to social distancing people are not able to meet, to share their feelings and thus facing stress, depression and other problems related to their mental health. People are facing many issues like fear of death, getting ill, loss of savings, joss of jobs, isolation, tension and poverty [27]. Some initiative to deal with this problem is much needed in the current circumstances otherwise this will cause long term effects on the mental status of the whole community. Artificial Intelligence technology can help out people in improving their mental health or keeping it stabilized [28]. The most appropriate solution provided by AI in this situation is usage of Chatbot. Many Chatbot services are available in the market without any cost and they are serving the people without any difficulty and even there is no risk leakage of user’s privacy. It has been found that users are much interested in taking online therapy or counseling sessions through these chatbots instead of visiting to some counselor or therapist because of either fear from corona or due to privacy issues [29]. Various types of data, probable mental problems associated with the person and their possible solutions etc. can be taken from various counselors and that data is fed into these chatbots as input. Although these types of chatbots are new for people now days, still these are beneficial for people in this COVID times. Researchers have concluded that these chatbots will be very fruitful for the patients dealing with mental issues [30]. Usage of smartphones and availability of internet makes these chatbots easy to use for the user [31].
1.3.6 Can AI Replace the Human Brain Intelligence in COVID-19 Crisis?
Artificial intelligence has the power in supporting us to deal with the crucial matter upraised by the corona virus. AI has not developed the human being; instead the human has developed AI. In this pandemic, apart from the benefits [32], some shortcomings of AI has also been evolved. Machine Learning theory of AI system works by understanding patterns of data. More accurate the data more are the chances of getting precise results but in order to obtain the perfect results, first ML needs a huge amount of training data which is difficult to collect and second it also works on the assumption that the data collected in the previous time will work perfectly even in the upcoming times as well which leads to imperfection in the results [33]. Human beings can learn from previous experiences and implement those experiences in the new situation by using that information in order to decide what can be done in any specific situation while artificial intelligence based systems takes the decision based upon the information fed to them. Their learning process begins from the initial level even when there is a minor change of the process. So AI is basically a mechanism and which value is to be put in which situation has been defined by the person who has defined and further using that mechanism [34]. In the current pandemic environment, the whole decision making of AI system is totally dependent upon steps taken by the human. In order to solve this problem, the person who is designing AI system must collect more and more training data that relates to every possible situation. More will be the training data; it will become easy for the AI system to reach to the goal [35]. In general, it can be easily concluded that although AI and ML both are better than human in appropriate decision making, still it is driven by human being and its decision making capacity is totally dependent upon the thought process of the human’s brain [34].
1.3.7 Advantages and Disadvantages of AI in Post COVID Era
Artificial Intelligence is getting more and more popularity in the various organizations now days. This technology has performed an evolution among various companies.
Here are some advantages of AI that can be functional in post COVID times.
1 More focus on automation of the system—Artificial Intelligence is automating the system day by day. Machines are overtaking the human beings in various tasks. Robots can perform better in the analysis, decision making and solving the problems. So as the AI is decreasing the burden of the work on the human beings, People are spending more time in enhancing their skill set [36]. Now personnel can focus on the technical aspects of their work to increase the growth of their organization. Humans and machines altogether will be capable of performing well and providing more accurate results and outcomes after COVID-19 [37].
2 Reduced possibilities of Failures—Artificial Intelligence can replace the manpower from the area where the chances of risk are maximum like boilers, fires etc. The system can be managed and controlled with the help of drones. These AI-based devices can’t abolish the hazards completely, but help in dealing with the crisis [15].
3 No slow down/deceleration—The main advantage of AI enabled devices is that they don’t require any break from their work like human being. They can work anytime without any interruption or without being exhausted. Further they can work with more productivity and efficiency. Physiological factors, tension, sentiments etc. can impact the working capacity of the people but AI machines are far away from these factors. They just require appropriate programming and maintenance [38].
4 Negligible errors in the job done-Tasks performed by AI robots and devices are free from errors and can provide precise solutions leading to the more revenue to the organization apart from the task performed by the human being [39].
5 Lessen Household tasks—Many AI-based systems are available in the market that assist people in doing their household works and managing their homes even if they are at remote location. These devices can be aligned with Smartphone, Smart televisions, Cars and many other household gadgets to perform the task. So people can control these devices anytime, anywhere. These systems also help in saving electricity and other resources and thus reducing the overall budget required to manage these resources [40].
6 Better Prediction Technology—These systems can predict any upcoming disaster like flood etc. with the help of Machine Learning and Deep Learning approach. This feature helps the governments to timely make a plan for the calamity and save the millions of lives and money [41].
Here are some drawbacks of using AI systems:
1 Restrict the manpower—AI will replace the manpower and degrade the job market leading to the huge unemployability in various sectors like production, farming and other industries where manual work can be replaced by the robots.
2 Lack of thinking power—AI driven systems are unable to decide by themselves if no data is being provided to them. They are only machines that are being run by the thinking process of human being. So if immediate decision is to be made in crucial situation without feeding the system with proper data set, the system won’t be able to reach to conclusion.
1.4 Conclusion
It is expected that the usage of artificial intelligence will shoot up in the post COVID world. AI has the capability of solving the problems and can perform decision making better than human beings. Various kinds of Artificial Intelligence enabled tools are also available in the market which perform analysis on a huge amount of data in order to understand the pattern about that data, for accurate decision making and for analyzing voice and image. Artificial Intelligent systems can also grasp new things continually. These features will be much useful as organizations will face and adjust with the new system developed due to this current crisis.
References
1. Allam, Z., Dey, G., Jones, D.S., Artificial Intelligence (AI) Provided Early Detection of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in China and Will Influence Future Urban Health Policy Internationally. AI, 1, 2, 156–165, 2020.
2. Mohanty, S., Harun Ai Rashid, M., Mridul, M., Mohanty, C., Swayamsiddha, S., Application of Artificial Intelligence in COVID-19 drug repurposing. Diabetes Metab. Syndr., 14, 5, 1027–1031, 2020.
3.