Recent weeks have seen China emerge as a testbed for emerging technologies to manage and mitigate the effects of major health crises like the coronavirus. As of 11^th March, China had almost 80,800 confirmed cases of the virus, also known as Covid-19, which had killed over 3,000 people. The economic impact of the virus has also been widely documented and includes disruptions to supply chains and lost business for countless shops, bars and restaurants.

But China has also seen several applications of information technologies to help combat and manage the impact of the virus. Examples include the use of workplace collaboration tools such as Alibaba’s DingTalk, Tencent’s WeChat and ByteDance’s Feishu by businesses, hospitals, schools and universities. These platforms enable various remote working arrangements, as well as the use of online classrooms, which support distance learning.

Others include the provision of digital mapping tools. Baidu has created an epidemic map feature on the Baidu Map App. This offers real-time location information about confirmed and suspected cases of the virus, as well as travel disruptions caused by enforced quarantines. Meanwhile, Tencent provides a self-examination tool on its WeChat platform to help users experiencing symptoms such as a fever or cough self-evaluate their condition and make any necessary arrangements. Tencent also maintains a map depicting clinics and hospitals that treat coronavirus patients.

However, it is the use of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), big data, robotics, and blockchain that illustrate the extent to which IT can help manage and alleviate the effects of a major health crisis. AI has seen various applications. In China, AI software developed by Beijing start-up, Infervision, has been deployed at 34 hospitals, which are using it to analyse CT scans for signs of the virus.

Separately, both Alibaba and Baidu have both made their AI gene sequencing technologies available to research institutes, which are using them to find a vaccine and other treatments for the virus. Other applications of AI include surveillance cameras that are able to measure body temperatures, and which use body and facial data to identify individuals.

Robotics is also being leveraged, with robots deployed in hospitals to sterilize quarantined wards. Meituan-Dianping, an online food retailer, has begun using autonomous vehicles to deliver groceries within Beijing’s Shunyi district, and is likely to launch similar “contactless delivery” in parts of the capital. Flying drones are also being put to work. For example, in Xinchang delivery drones developed by Japan’s Terra Drone are used to deliver medical supplies between the People’s Hospital of Xinchang and the provincial disease control centre.

Meanwhile, blockchain – an open, distributed secure ledger that provides users with transparency and the possibility of establishing immutable records – has seen several novel applications, including its use by China’s foreign exchange regulator to provide foreign businesses with access to export trade financing. In a separate initiative, Ant Financial is using blockchain-based mutual aid platform, Xiang Hu Bao, to distribute financial payments to members affected by the coronavirus.

With China mobilising its enormous emerging technologies arsenal to tackle the impact of the coronavirus, the crisis-management potential of AI, big data, robotics, and blockchain will be scrutinised for applicability elsewhere. However, alongside assessments of the wider potential of these technologies will be questions about the ethical and social implications of specific uses. Key concerns include the long-term governance of AI-based surveillance and tagging technologies.

There is potential for captured information to be used for a much broader range of purposes – including state control. They also include concerns about the potential for workers in some industries to be permanently replaced by robots. Such concerns are likely to feature prominently in future debates about efficacy and ethics of such technologies, even once the coronavirus is brought under control.

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