SHANGHAI, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Due to COVID-19, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2020 in Shanghai this week adopted a hybrid model where offline exhibitions and online displays took place simultaneously to showcase the latest artificial intelligence (AI) applications and frontier development. More than 500 AI experts and executives, including Nobel laureates and Turing Award winners, attended this year's WAIC held from Thursday to Saturday with the theme of "Intelligent Connectivity, Indivisible Community." Photo taken on July 3, 2020 shows the research center of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on the "AIsland" of Zhangjiang Science City in Pudong New Area, east China's Shanghai. AI has already demonstrated its potential to transform societies, economies and industries, but this is just the beginning, according to experts at the conference. WAIC plays a critical role in bringing people together to learn from one another and identify ways of collaborating to achieve more.

Real estate investor Tom Barrack on how the outbreak is impacting the housing market. Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. As nations around the world scramble to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, straining medical resources and overburdening doctors, governments are turning to technology to help fight back the outbreak. Multiple Asian governments have used smartphone apps to track data of users who have tested positive for COVID-19. In South Korea, a compulsory app enforces self-isolation for those ordered to maintain it. Taiwan and Singapore are also using smartphone apps to enforce quarantines via "electronic fences" that alert authorities when someone moves out of quarantine.