COVID-19 Is Changing Our Behavior – and Messing Up Machine Learning Models

When the U.S. began locking down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Amazon, grocery stores, and wholesale stores like Costco saw an enormous uptick in consumers wanting to buy a few select items. On Amazon, during the week of April 12th to 18th, the top ten search queries were face masks and N95 masks, hand sanitizer, paper products like paper towels and toilet paper, and sanitizing solutions like Lysol spray and Clorox wipes. So many people bought face masks that April's new #1 selling product on Amazon was "Face Mask, Pack of 50". This trend occurred across every single consumer- and business-facing industry and vertical. Consumers started behaving erratically literally overnight, and they haven't stopped behaving abnormally, creating a massive problem for companies who employ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models.