Artificial Intelligence in the Battle against Coronavirus (COVID-19): A
Survey and Future Research Directions
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been applied widely in our daily lives
in a variety of ways with numerous successful stories. AI has also
contributed to dealing with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic,
which has been happening around the globe. This paper presents a survey
of AI methods being used in various applications in the fight against
the COVID-19 outbreak and outlines the crucial roles of AI research in
this unprecedented battle. We touch on a number of areas where AI plays
as an essential component, from medical image processing, data
analytics, text mining and natural language processing, the Internet of
Things, to computational biology and medicine. A summary of COVID-19
related data sources that are available for research purposes is also
presented. Research directions on exploring the potentials of AI and
enhancing its capabilities and power in the battle are thoroughly
discussed. We highlight 13 groups of problems related to the COVID-19
pandemic and point out promising AI methods and tools that can be used
to solve those problems. It is envisaged that this study will provide AI
researchers and the wider community an overview of the current status of
AI applications and motivate researchers in harnessing AI potentials in
the fight against COVID-19.