Executives from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook met officials at Downing Street on Wednesday to discuss their role in the coronavirus crisis.
One of the things discussed was their role in "modelling and tracking data".
In similar meetings at the White House, meanwhile, companies were asked how they could use artificial intelligence.
A World Health Organization report last month said AI and big data were a key part of China's response to the virus.
Sharing data
Facebook is already working with researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health and the National Tsing Hua University, in Taiwan, sharing anonymised data about people's movements and high-resolution population density maps, which help them forecast the spread of the virus.
Fighting misinformation
So far, there has not been any comprehensive study of how much misinformation remains on platforms such as Google and Facebook but it is likely to be substantial.
Google said its team was "working round the clock to safeguard our users from phishing, conspiracy theories, malware and misinformation".
Search for coronavirus or Covid-19, and an SOS Alert appears, alongside links to help and information about the virus.
YouTube, meanwhile, is using its homepage to direct users to the World Health Organization and other groups, for education and information, while working to remove videos suggesting alternative cures as soon as they go live.
Finding drugs
British start-up Exscienta became the first company to put a AI-designed drug molecule to human trials earlier this year.
It took just 12 months for algorithms to create it, compared with four to five years for traditional research.
