CORD-19: Database of scientific articles launched to help AI fight COVID-19

Earlier this week, five organisations released an open dataset – CORD-19 – containing nearly 30 000 scientific articles with the hopes that artificial intelligence will be able to use the data and combat the spread of COVID-19 infections. These articles have previously been published in journals, or were saved on pre-print servers. CORD-19 is short for COVID-19 Open Research Data set. The CORD-19 dataset was released after the Trump administration issued a "call to action" for the tech community to develop AI (artificial intelligence) techniques to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections. In addition, Michael Kratsios, US Chief Technology Officer at The White House, explained that "decisive action from America's science and technology enterprise" was needed to prevent, detect, treat and develop a cure for COVID-19.