Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence—Lessons From E-Government Services in the COVID-19 Pandemic

How to understand the role and impact of information technology and artificial intelligence has triggered a big debate. To explore the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and its applications, this article takes the face mask distribution programs in the COVID-19 pandemic as research objects, conducting a multi-case comparative study of three cities in China. By manual coding of a total of 4560 We Chat official account messages, and by analyzing information related to the distribution process, it was found that: (1) On the demand side, the task complexity, the demand diversity, and the unstructured decision-making process in the public health emergency have exposed some limitations of AI in data collecting and unstructured problem-solving. (2) On the supply side, the procedural and substantive rules designed, together with the reliability of an AI system, will shape the performance of the AI service channel. (3) Though AI and other new technologies are advancing drastically in the pandemic, there is still much room for improvement whether by the optimization of AI systems, or by political control and social participation, and by the supplement of alternative channels such as the community service delivery.