Chloe for COVID-19: Evolution of an Intelligent Conversational Agent to Address Infodemic Management Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

There is an unprecedented demand for infodemic management due to rapidly evolving information about the novel COVID-19 pandemic. This viewpoint paper details the evolution of a Canadian digital information tool, Chloe for COVID-19, based on incremental leveraging of artificial intelligence techniques. By providing an accessible summary of Chloe's development, we show how proactive cooperation between health, technology, and corporate sectors can lead to a rapidly scalable, safe, and secure virtual chatbot to assist public health efforts in keeping Canadians informed. We then highlight Chloe's strengths, the challenges we faced during the development process, and future directions for the role of chatbots in infodemic management. The information presented here may guide future collaborative efforts in health technology in order to enhance access to accurate and timely health information to the public.

Keywords: COVID-19; artificial intelligence; chatbot; conversational agents; digital health; infodemic; infodemiology; misinformation; public health; virtual care.