The White House Office of Science and Technology facilitated the Monday release of more than 29,000 machine-readable articles and other literature on COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in a bid for artificial intelligence experts to develop text and data-mining techniques to help the scientific community answer “high-priority” questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House, meanwhile, postponed a planned April 1 5G summit because of the outbreak (see 2003160064). The National institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Microsoft, Allen Institute for AI, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology contributed to the literature released Monday, OSTP said. “Decisive action from America’s science and technology enterprise is critical to prevent, detect, treat, and develop solutions to COVID-19,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios on a conference call with reporters. “The White House will continue to be a strong partner in this all hands-on-deck approach. We thank each institution for voluntarily lending its expertise and innovation to this collaborative effort, and call on the United States research community to put artificial intelligence technologies to work in answering key scientific questions about” COVID-19. “We need to come together as companies, governments, and scientists and work to bring our best technologies to bear across biomedicine, epidemiology, AI, and other sciences,” said Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz. “The COVID-19 literature resource and challenge will stimulate efforts that can accelerate the path to solutions.”
The White House Office of Science and Technology facilitated the Monday release of more than 29,000 machine-readable articles and other literature on COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in a bid for artificial intelligence experts to develop text and data-mining techniques to help the scientific community answer “high-priority” questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House, meanwhile, postponed a planned April 1 5G summit because of the outbreak (see 2003160064). The National institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Microsoft, Allen Institute for AI, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology contributed to the literature released Monday, OSTP said. “Decisive action from America’s science and technology enterprise is critical to prevent, detect, treat, and develop solutions to COVID-19,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios on a conference call with reporters. “The White House will continue to be a strong partner in this all hands-on-deck approach. We thank each institution for voluntarily lending its expertise and innovation to this collaborative effort, and call on the United States research community to put artificial intelligence technologies to work in answering key scientific questions about” COVID-19. “We need to come together as companies, governments, and scientists and work to bring our best technologies to bear across biomedicine, epidemiology, AI, and other sciences,” said Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz. “The COVID-19 literature resource and challenge will stimulate efforts that can accelerate the path to solutions.”
The Communications Workers of America and consumer groups sent major broadband providers a letter Monday urging them to lift all data caps and waive cap fees for all customers as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The companies should also “remove barriers to immediate access to service plans, including any waiting period to enroll” and “share with the FCC data collected on the number of customers served, by what packages, and where expanded services were provided during the emergency.” The letters went to Altice, AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, Frontier Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, CWA said: Groups endorsing the push include Common Cause, Consumer Reports, Free Press, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, MediaJustice, the National Consumer Law Center, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, The Utility Reform Network and United Church of Christ Office of Communication.
The White House Office of Science and Technology facilitated the Monday release of more than 29,000 machine-readable articles and other literature on COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in a bid for artificial intelligence experts to develop text and data-mining techniques to help the scientific community answer “high-priority” questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House, meanwhile, postponed a planned April 1 5G summit because of the outbreak (see 2003160064). The National institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Microsoft, Allen Institute for AI, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology contributed to the literature released Monday, OSTP said. “Decisive action from America’s science and technology enterprise is critical to prevent, detect, treat, and develop solutions to COVID-19,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios on a conference call with reporters. “The White House will continue to be a strong partner in this all hands-on-deck approach. We thank each institution for voluntarily lending its expertise and innovation to this collaborative effort, and call on the United States research community to put artificial intelligence technologies to work in answering key scientific questions about” COVID-19. “We need to come together as companies, governments, and scientists and work to bring our best technologies to bear across biomedicine, epidemiology, AI, and other sciences,” said Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz. “The COVID-19 literature resource and challenge will stimulate efforts that can accelerate the path to solutions.”
A White House-convened 5G summit is among events to be postponed or canceled because of COVID-19. The FCC also announced policies intended to allow agency licensees to function during the pandemic. Unlike the FCC, staff at some agencies are still having to report to the office.
President Donald Trump said during a Friday news conference his proclamation declaring the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic a national emergency temporarily waives parts of the Medicare, Medicaid and state children's health insurance programs and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy rule in a way that will enable more widespread use of telehealth. He called telehealth “a fairly new and incredible thing that’s happened in the not so distant past. I tell you, what they’ve done with telehealth is incredible.” There have been numerous calls for better access to telehealth resources as the virus outbreak has grown (see 2003120002). Trump also announced that a Google affiliate is working with the White House and other private sector companies on a website to aid Americans in finding tests to screen for coronavirus. Alphabet's Verily is overseeing plans for the website, which Trump said was to be ready by Sunday. The site will direct Americans to drive-through testing sites in parking lots at retailers like Target and Walmart, said White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Debbie Birx. “It’s going to be very quickly done -- unlike websites of the past -- to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump said. “Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They’ve made tremendous progress. Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and to help all Americans who have been impacted by this.” Verily confirmed it's "developing a tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing. We are in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time."
President Donald Trump said during a Friday news conference his proclamation declaring the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic a national emergency temporarily waives parts of the Medicare, Medicaid and state children's health insurance programs and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy rule in a way that will enable more widespread use of telehealth. He called telehealth “a fairly new and incredible thing that’s happened in the not so distant past. I tell you, what they’ve done with telehealth is incredible.” There have been numerous calls for better access to telehealth resources as the virus outbreak has grown (see 2003120002). Trump also announced that a Google affiliate is working with the White House and other private sector companies on a website to aid Americans in finding tests to screen for coronavirus. Alphabet's Verily is overseeing plans for the website, which Trump said was to be ready by Sunday. The site will direct Americans to drive-through testing sites in parking lots at retailers like Target and Walmart, said White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Debbie Birx. “It’s going to be very quickly done -- unlike websites of the past -- to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump said. “Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They’ve made tremendous progress. Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and to help all Americans who have been impacted by this.” Verily confirmed it's "developing a tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing. We are in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time."
A spiraling number of federal, state and local courts are restricting access or pausing cases due to coronavirus concerns, with more expected. Caught between the public's constitutional right of access to court proceedings and health risks, courts are probably going to opt for a "Goldilocks response" of reduced use of in-person proceedings, replaced with technological alternatives and written filings, University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, a former U.S. District Court judge, told us.
The Trump administration is prioritizing efforts surrounding its export controls, investment screening and diplomacy to restrict China from acquiring sensitive dual-use technologies, a senior State Department official said. The official, speaking to reporters March 12, said China has ramped up technology theft and said companies and research institutions should be cautious of any attempts by Chinese companies to divert their products for military end-use, which are often masked in “incentives and inducements.”
A day after NAB canceled its April show at the Las Vegas Convention Center (see 2003110036), the coronavirus continued turning life upside down Thursday for many in various business and public sectors. In excess of 1,500 U.S. cases of COVID-19 were confirmed through Thursday afternoon, including 39 deaths. The spread was on pace to surpass 2,000 confirmed U.S. cases by the start of the weekend.