With the coronavirus now spreading fast across countries, many people are looking for information on how to approach it. This involves finding out what works and what does not. With such a need for information, disinformation is also spreading across borders more than ever before. One of the most recent disinformation is that artificial intelligence can cure COVID-19. Such kind of information circulating online is not only misleading but is dangerous as well. With the increase in the number of social media users and platforms, such mis/disinformation can reach millions of people within a short time.

For decades, artificial intelligence has been seeking to mimic humans and nature. The main goal here is to create systems that have the ability to make decisions like humans. As such, most AI systems are brain-inspired, and scientists behind it have always attempted to mimic neural networks, a term borrowed from biology. With computers now able to think like humans, computer scientists are now focused on a different goal as they seek to revise artificial intelligence by transitioning it into smarter and more efficient systems. Initially, most of the research was devoted to training AI through machine learning to enable algorithms to learn how to recognize objects and how to perform basic tasks. Now that this has been achieved, these techniques are being deployed to create more advanced systems that can work autonomously without human intervention.

In the face of the current coronavirus pandemic, various arsenals are being assembled to help in the fight against the stubborn virus. A digital response to this pandemic can take different forms and yield various results, one being the rapid delivery of test results and a fast assessment of infection risks. One of the promising technologies proving helpful in this fight is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This technology is now weighing in the fight with initial results showing that it can be the silver bullet both in search of medication and assessing the damage that the virus has caused as it spreads through the human body.