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.”
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."
TechFreedom President Berin Szoka is stepping down after nearly 10 years, following tweeting earlier last week it would be poetic justice if President Donald Trump were to die from the coronavirus. He was replaced by Shane Tews, from American Enterprise Institute, a longtime member of the group's board. “I’ve been waiting for over a decade to actually write a book and spend less of my time responding to day-to-day changes in technology debates, and laying out the vision that’s always guided my work,” Szoka said in an interview: “I’m excited to do that.” He said he regrets posting the tweet: “It was a bad idea and I’ve said so.” Szoka said he views Tews as a longtime mentor and supporter: “I couldn’t ask for a better person to step in.”
Senate passage of the House-altered Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (S-1822) sends the measure on to President Donald Trump, who’s expected to sign it. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent Tuesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and seven other committee Republicans want the FCC to distribute money from its proposed 5G Fund based on accurate broadband coverage data. The House amended S-1822 last week to include language from its House-passed companion (HR-4229), which was expanded into a larger broadband mapping legislative package (see 2003030064). S-1822 now also includes language from the House-passed Mapping Accuracy Promotes Services Act (HR-4227), which would bar companies from knowingly giving the FCC inaccurate broadband coverage data. “Flawed broadband maps are a huge problem for rural and underserved communities, including many in Mississippi,” Wicker said. “I expect the FCC and other federal agencies to use these new maps when awarding funding.” Unless "appropriately targeted," the 5G Fund "risks deepening the digital divide,” Wicker and the other senators wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
The White House wants 5G to be deployed “rapidly, using a free-enterprise-drive approach,” Robin Colwell, special assistant to the president for technology, telecommunications and cybersecurity policy-National Economic Council, told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. “Strong domestic deployment is an absolute imperative for us, both to support a global-trusted marketplace for equipment and services and to deliver on the promise of 5G across America.” The next “killer app” will be “born right here and rapidly adopted worldwide,” she said. The FCC’s upcoming $9 billion 5G Fund “will help ensure that rural America is not left behind in the evolution to 5G,” she said: “It is impossible to overstate the critical importance of mid-band spectrum to 5G domestic deployment.” The FCC’s February C-band order (see 2002280044) “is a huge step in the right direction,” she said. The U.S. must lead on 5G research and development, Colwell said. “The latest market trends in network architecture, disaggregation, interoperability and virtualization” are “a very important part” of research, she said. “We must also recognize the opportunity inherent in the market trends and seek to accelerate innovation, which is what America does best.” The FCC plans a March 26 forum on 5G virtualized radio access networks (see 2002200058).
The Senate passed 96-1 an $8.3 billion COVID-19 supplemental funding package Thursday that includes a provision to speed telehealth use to address the outbreak by waiving restrictions for Medicare beneficiaries. HR-6074 passed the House 415-2. The American Telemedicine Association applauded the OK. The FCC and telecom industry are scaling back some activities (see 2003050069).
Commerce Department Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock is leaving effective Friday, communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed Comstock’s impending departure Monday (see 2003020028). Ross noted Comstock had committed to “serve for three years.” Officials and lobbyists noted overarching controversy over his tenure, including his role in the department’s public disagreement with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on 5G goals (see 1906120076). Comstock’s exit could provide a new opening for President Donald Trump’s administration to attempt to nominate a permanent replacement for former NTIA Administrator David Redl, though there appears to be little time left to feasibly advance a nominee through the Senate confirmations process, given the presidential campaign cycle, lobbyists said. Redl left abruptly in May, with some saying his disagreements with Comstock were a factor (see 1905090051). Work to find a permanent successor has been hindered by concerns about Comstock’s influence at Commerce (see 1908090070). Several officials pointed in December to Treasury Department acting Deputy Assistant Secretary-International Affairs Edward Hearst as a potential successor (see 1912160049), but he now appears to be out of the running because of objections to his tenure at Treasury, lobbyists said. Doug Kinkoph is acting NTIA administrator (see 1912230065). “The relationship between Earl and the NTIA was unprecedented and odd to be sure," said Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute senior fellow. "So are a lot of things about how this administration works.”
The Trump administration isn’t serious about maintaining a lead in science and technology, said House Science Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, Thursday. The administration claimed its 2021 federal research and development budget proposal is a 6 percent increase for R&D, Johnson said during a hearing, but said the proposal is actually a 6 percent increase over last year’s proposal, which Congress rejected before appropriating increases for R&D. “So in truth, this Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal represents a 9 percent cut to R&D funding,” she said. Ranking member Frank Lucas, R-Okla., disagreed, saying the 2021 budget request includes “bold proposals” for ensuring American leadership in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. He cited a doubling of funding for AI and quantum R&D over the next two years. He said Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier agrees American superiority in science and technology is fundamental to economic competitiveness and national security. Droegemeier testified that R&D investment was about $580 billion in 2018 and is over $600 billion today. That’s important because AI and quantum intersect with every sector of technology, he said, also citing the doubling of R&D investment by 2022.
Three Democratic 2020 presidential candidates said they wouldn’t allow Chinese companies to build critical U.S. infrastructure, during a Tuesday night debate. None of the three -- former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- specifically mentioned Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., reached a deal before the Presidents Day recess for the chamber to soon pass the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998) by unanimous consent (see 2002130054). The House-passed bill would allocate at least $1 billion to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. The three candidates pivoted to other issues on China, including whether President Xi Jinping is a dictator. Bloomberg emphasized it’s important for the U.S. to push China to uphold trade agreements that bar the “stealing of intellectual property.” The FCC asked eligible telecom carriers Wednesday whether they use equipment or services from Huawei or ZTE (see 2002260010).
Attorney General William Barr said the U.S. government and its allies should be “actively considering” proposals to bolster Ericsson and Nokia “through American ownership of a controlling stake, either directly or through a consortium of private American and allied companies” to make them more effective competitors against Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei. Barr’s remarks at a Center for Strategic & International Studies conference came hours after Huawei sued Verizon in two U.S. district courts in Texas for allegedly violating the Chinese company’s patents on networking technology. Verizon abused patents via a range of services, including on Fios and network infrastructure components that “facilitate communication through Verizon’s networks,” Huawei said in its complaint. Verizon “profited greatly” from its abuses of the patents, which netted it $29.8 billion, Huawei claims. The lawsuit “nothing more than a PR stunt,” Verizon said. “This lawsuit is a sneak attack on our company and the entire tech ecosystem. Huawei’s real target is not Verizon; it is any country or company that defies it. The action lacks merit, and we look forward to vigorously defending ourselves.” Barr said U.S. backing of Ericsson and Nokia is preferable to the “pie in the sky” proposals supported by others in President Donald Trump’s administration to work with U.S. tech companies to develop open radio access networks software for 5G networks aimed at stemming concerns about the security of Huawei equipment (see 2002040056). The open RAN “approach is completely untested, and would take many years to get off the ground, and would not be ready for prime time for a decade, if ever,” Barr said. “What we need today is a product that can win contracts right now -- a proven infrastructure that network operators will make a long-term commitment to today. In other words, we need a product that can blunt and turnaround Huawei’s momentum currently.” Ericsson and Nokia are the “only two companies that can compete with Huawei right now,” Barr said. “They have quality, reliable products that can guarantee performance. They have proven successful in managing customers’ migration from 4G to 5G. The main concern about these suppliers is that they have neither Huawei’s scale nor the backing of a powerful country with a large market, like China.” Putting the U.S.’ “large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over its staying power,” he said. Barr urged the FCC to “move decisively” toward an auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band and “bring resolution” on the L band (see 2002060057). Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel criticized Barr, tweeting that it’s “becoming clear as day” the Trump administration “does not have a coordinated plan for our 5G future. We need one.”