The Defense Department is seeking to adapt artificial intelligence technology it uses to track down terrorists with drones or predict when aircraft need maintenance for a new purpose: screening and testing novel coronavirus treatments and vaccines. The Pentagon plans to boost existing programs with money Congress provided under the virus-relief CARES Act for the "development of artificial intelligence-based models to rapidly screen, prioritize, and test Food and Drug Administration approved therapeutics for new COVID-19 drug candidates." The AI funds would also be tapped for human test trials for vaccines and antibody based treatments, according to the spending plan the department submitted to congressional panels. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and ranking member on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, pressed for the plan's release. While the amount of money the Pentagon wants to use on these programs is small---close to $1 million--it shows some of the department's urgency to apply new technology to choke off the pandemic.

The Defense Department is seeking tech experts to help manage its Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), the cornerstone of the department's efforts to develop A.I. technologies and share them with other defense agencies. The JAIC is seeking "highly technical" contract personnel from up to two small businesses to provide software architecture, operations and systems analysis, technical writing, and subject matter expertise, according to an April 23 request for information. The turnaround time on this opportunity is short: small businesses have only until April 30 to submit a response. There is an immediate need for 18-40 contract personnel in fiscal year 2020, all of whom will be required to hold a Top Secret security clearance. Interim security clearances are available.

The Chinese have a very public, very-deep, extremely well-funded commitment to AI. Air Force General VeraLinn Jamieson says it plainly: "We estimate the total spending on artificial intelligence systems in China in 2017 was $12 billion. We also estimate that it will grow to at least $70 billion by 2020." According to the Obama White House Report in 2016, China publishes more journal articles on deep learning than the US and has increased its number of AI patents by 200%. China is determined to be the world leader in AI by 2030.

The Health and Human Services Department's Program Support Center on Jan. 10 released a request for proposals for an artificial intelligence multiple-award contract. It's another piece of evidence that the agency has prioritized AI and is likely to spend more on the emerging technology in the next few years. None of HHS's information technology strategies mention artificial intelligence. Yet the way the agency is spending money and planning to obligate future funds tells another story. HHS plans to use automation, machine learning, supervised learning, and machine vision to reduce backlogs, predict fraudulent transactions, identify suspects through facial recognition, and more.