Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott grew up fascinated by the 1960s Apollo space program and then-President John F. Kennedy's vision of a moon shot. Now, he envisions just as ambitious a project taking shape as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Just as the U.S. government significantly invested to put Neil Armstrong and others on the moon by 1969 – $200 billion in today's dollars by his estimate – Scott said similar funding in artificial intelligence technology could be a difference-maker for our nation's battered health care system. Scott, 48, whose new book about AI will be released Tuesday, said using the technology to detect underlying health conditions could not only help treat patients and prevent the spread of future pandemics, but also reduce care costs for Americans, tens of millions of which are uninsured. "Instead of a'moon shot,' our moon shot should be something like radically transforming health care for the public good,'' Scott said. "We all know the cost of delivering ubiquitous, high-quality health care is very high and growing faster than [gross domestic product].