Can AI help in fight against COVID-19 ?

The article written by Indra Shekhar Singh focuses on the use of artificial intelligence and data apps that help provide analytics of individuals to track their history of movement in the backdrop of Coronavirus spread. As the world is literally in a lockdown, governments from China to the US are allowing AI and data analytics private firms access to sweep through private data on phones for location, etc, facial recognition technology is also deployed to screen for people with coronavirus.

Hyderabad: "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law "Article 21, Constitution of India."

The process our governments in responding to pandemic-COVID-19 ought to be extolled. Some heads of states, shedding differences, appealed for standing together in Humanity’s fight against the virus. We the denizens of the world are told all options are open from AI to biotechnology to win from coronavirus.

As the world is literally in a lockdown, governments from China to the US are allowing artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics private firms access to sweep through private data on phones for location, etc, facial recognition technology is also deployed to screen for people with coronavirus. It is reported that companies like Tencent and Alibaba have been working with the Chinese government to deploy these technologies.

The Chinese government is using apps to collect travel history; time spent in infected places, details of an individual’s interactions, so in short they know each detail about the individual with the help of AI and apps. In India too, corona app is now being made popular as a screening tool. Once the information is collected in China algorithms assign people Health Codes - yellow, red and green.

The colour codes notify whether one is to be quarantined or not, whether one can use public transport or not. Most of this data collection is not by choice of the citizen. AI reports back to the government if the individual has given inconsistent answers or simply lied. Coercive actions follow that. The government has superseded all privacy conventions and freely allowing private companies to look into phones, computers, public cameras to achieve the results. The Chinese state has an extensive and often called "Black Mirror-esque and dark" social credit system, which allows for monitoring of each action and behaviour. If the behaviour is aligned with the state, you are rewarded, otherwise, you can’t even board a train.

Looking Westward, in England Sky news reports, "The government is working with mobile network O2 to analyse anonymous smartphone location data to see whether people are following its social distancing guidelines."

Israel, one step ahead of the curve, is using mobile surveillance to send users customised messages about if they are infected or not. Social media firms like Facebook, Google, etc are doing their bit too, by freely giving governments our data. So no matter where you are, coronavirus crisis has given Big brother an excuse to watch you all the time. And remember it is for ‘public health and your own good’. And of course, we have nothing to hide.

The stakes are getting higher, as the US-China trade wars have entered a new horizon of AI-based technology. Both nations are cognisant of the enormous power AI-based surveillance and medical technology. No friend of the Silicon valley, Trump now has taken assistance from a company called BlueDot to create a mass surveillance system to monitor people for COVID-19. It is only about time other Silicon Valley giants like Microsoft, etc begin their dalliance with the White House to birth the most sophisticated reconnaissance systems engineered to feed government your per minute heart rate.

Emergency legislation is introduced across the world to expedient data collection and give government 'war' like powers. In a statement, Kamran Khan of Bluedot told the media, we know that governments may not be relied upon to provide information in a timely fashion. This reflects the larger disbelief in governments and democratic institutions at large by this class of technocrats.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I don’t doubt noble intentions of our governments and private companies in their efforts to control COVID-19, but the AI-based systems they are creating, do send a horripilation of panic and we are forced to beg the question, what happens to mass surveillance based systems after COVID-19 goes away? Will the mass surveillance 10.0 go away or evolve further? Can citizens of the world be certain it won’t be misused?

Coupled with 5G technology, this system will be extremely powerful and its master or owner will be the overlord of our planet. One can only think of Mr Lincoln’s “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a men's character, give him power,” what will happen to our leaders when they can get inside your head in a touch of a button. This system will open the pandora box of control and once the Caesars’ of the world taste its blood, the parade would be grander than in "Asterix and the Chariot" (coronavirus word features in a parade setting in the comic published in 2017).

People of the world must be very careful for under the habiliment of remedies of COVID-19 lurks a far sinister danger. AI-based mass surveillance slithers into our lives with our approvals. As the fear reigns, a neighbour has already turned against neighbour. Asian descent people are becoming Hitler’s Jews, as news of racial hatred is rising we are globally descending into chaos.

We have to ensure corona doesn't aid another holocaust of hate and fear empowered by technology. With millions dead in the World wars, the world has learnt our lesson, perhaps, that technology can also be used for genocide. The gas chambers to the nuclear bomb were all cutting edge science of their time, and yet they served satanic ends. Champions of tech and science like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking along with other scientists have already cautioned the world against AI, in fact, Musk goes on to say that "AI is more dangerous than nuclear weapons."

We need to curb the indiscriminate use of AI-based technology, especially applications that loot our privacy and rights. Democracy, privacy and humanity are threatened by private technocratic tools such as AI-based surveillance. The crisis is not an excuse to free them from regulation, we need to have a pre-nuptial agreement with these firms and technology. We all agree that corona crisis must be stopped by all means necessary, but we should be very careful that our remedies don't seed the next disease - mass surveillance state.

The emergency powers today, can be misused in the future, so either the governments legislate AI and private data firms to protect our liberties or wake up to an Orwellian morning and uncover that, "If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."