The Department of Energy (DOE) identified 26 science and technology challenges it aims to tackle through its Genesis Mission while advancing artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and discovery.
The challenges are of national importance and span DOE’s science, energy, and national security missions, the department said in an announcement Feb. 12.
The Genesis Mission was launched last year as a department-wide initiative to harness AI across DOE’s science, energy, and national security programs to accelerate discovery, modernize critical infrastructure, and strengthen U.S. economic and technological leadership.
“These challenges represent a bold step toward a future where science moves at the speed of imagination because of AI. It’s a game-changer for science, energy, and national security,” said DOE Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission Lead Darío Gil.
“By uniting the U.S. Government’s unparalleled data resources and DOE’s experimental facilities with cutting-edge AI, we can unlock discoveries that will power the economy, secure our energy future, and keep America at the forefront of global innovation,” Gil added.
Some of the 26 challenges include scaling biotechnologies, accelerating fusion energy, discovering quantum algorithms, harnessing nuclear data and research, realizing quantum systems for discovery, and achieving AI-driven autonomous laboratories.
DOE said addressing the challenges would help it modernize and secure the nation’s power grid and digitize eight decades of nuclear research into a secure, searchable resource to guide future energy and security strategy.
DOE said it also plans to deploy AI to make particle accelerators more autonomous and to design advanced materials based on performance goals, compressing development timelines from years to months.
Additional efforts would apply AI to model underground environments for responsible energy development, automate laboratory experimentation to accelerate breakthroughs in drugs and next-generation technologies, and strengthen advanced manufacturing and supply chains.
Another focus is to speed quantum algorithm discovery and advance next-generation microelectronics, reinforcing U.S. leadership in critical technologies tied to economic competitiveness and national security.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios said that, in the future, the list of challenges outlined by DOE will expand to “bring even greater impact to the Mission.”
“These 26 challenges are a direct call to action to America’s researchers and innovators to join the Genesis Mission and deliver science and technology breakthroughs that will benefit the American people,” Kratsios said.