Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a Time of Pandemics: Developing Options for the Ethical Governance of COVID-19 AI Applications

This chapter analyses the various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) developed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the range of ethical questions that their multi-level deployment may raise. Within this frame, the author sheds light on the challenges posed by the fast-tracking authorization of some of the AI systems and pays particular attention to the form and shape that ‘emergency response’ in the field of ethics has taken in order to cope with these extraordinary challenges and the ethical practices that have been developed thus far. The chapter will also provide a detailed set of policy suggestions to overcome these challenges with a special focus on the need to develop an emergency ethics framework that will allow policy-makers to authorize the deployment of AI-powered tools in a responsible and trustworthy manner.