Will You, Won't You Join the DANs?

In COVID-related AI news, Andy and Dave discuss a report from MIT that identifies gaps in coverage from COVID vaccines, and uses machine learning to identify peptide additions to increase their efficacy. The GAO and the National Academy of Medicine release a combined report on AI in health care. Nature provides access to a large collection of open datasets related to COVID research and information. In non-COVID-related AI news, President Trump signs an executive order on the governmental development of AI, which includes a requirement for OMB to produce a roadmap by the end of May 2021. The FY21 National Defense Authorization Act boots the JAIC's role and performance, to include a funding stream for acquisition authority. The ML-Reproducibility Challenge 2020 kicks off, with submissions due by 29 January 2021. Researchers in China announce the creation of a photonic quantum computer that achieves quantum supremacy in conducting Gaussian boson sampling. The Bjarke Ingles Group unveils its plans to create an "AI city," a tech-hub in Chongqing, China. And the Navy's uncrewed Overlord test vessel completes a 4700 nautical mile journey with minimal human assistance, to include passage through the Panama Canal. Researchers at Georgia State University demonstrate an approach to continual learning with deep artificial neurons (DANs), a neural network, where the neurons are themselves small deep neural networks. And researchers at Tencent AI Lab demonstrate an almost society-of-agents approach to creating an a deep reinforcement algorithm that can play multi-player online battle arena (MOBA) games.