The Use of Smart City Applications and Artificial Intelligence (AI) during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The Covid-19 viral disease has spread worldwide very rapidly and was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The unexpected rapid increase in the number of infected people has resulted in adverse impact on all spheres of life, and countries have turned to various practices in combating the pandemic. Smart city applications and artificial intelligence technologies were among the first tools that various countries utilized to get quick results in their fight against Covid-19. The aim of this study is to reveal the importance of smart city applications and artificial intelligence in combating Covid-19 by presenting China, US, France, Italy, and Turkey as examples. These countries were comparatively analyzed in terms of their policies, smart city applications and artificial intelligence technologies they have been utilizing to contain and cope with Covid-19. Our findings indicate that these countries mostly benefited from smart city applications, broadband technologies, 5G technology, mobile applications, health code, radiation management, early diagnosis kit and face recognition technologies in coping with the pandemic.