BotCovid: Development and Evaluation of a Chatbot to Combat Misinformation about COVID-19 in Brazil ∗

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global disruption in society and its healthcare systems. Access to information emerges as an essential tool in combating the pandemic. Technological resources play a central role in providing access to information, for better or worse. They allow almost unlimited and instantaneous access to information. However, false or inaccurate information spreads at high speed, which is especially dangerous in the midst of a pandemic. We have developed and evaluated a chatbot based on selected information from reliable sources to answer questions about COVID-19. We assembled an extensive database of 600 questions about COVID-19 to increase the accuracy, and reliability of the chatbot for Brazilian users. We performed an evaluation of BotCovid regarding its functionality, compatibility and reliability with a group of 52 users, the obtained results indicated high satisfaction with the prototype. Twenty users were randomly selected to evaluate the chatbot's usability, which was analyzed by the System Usability Scale, with an average final score of 83.25, indicating excellent usability. © 2021 IEEE.