US President Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order (EO) launching the Genesis Mission, which seeks to use artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how scientific research is conducted and to accelerate scientific discovery.

The EO describes the Genesis Mission as “a national effort to accelerate the application of AI for transformative scientific discovery focused on pressing national challenges”.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright is responsible for implementing the Mission within the Department of Energy (DOE) ensuring that all DOE resources used for elements of the Mission are integrated into a secure, unified platform. The Assistant to the President for Science & Technology (APST) and Director of the Office for Science & Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, will provide “general leadership” of the Mission, including coordination of participating executive departments and agencies through the National Science & Technology Council (NSTC).

The Energy Secretary will establish and operate the American Science and Security Platform as the infrastructure for the Mission with the purpose of providing:

  • high-performance computing resources, including DOE national laboratory supercomputers and secure cloud-based AI computing environments, capable of supporting large-scale model training, simulation, and inference;
  • AI modelling and analysis frameworks;
  • computational tools, including AI-enabled predictive models, simulation models, and design optimisation tools;
  • domain-specific foundation models across the range of scientific domains;
  • secure access to appropriate datasets, including proprietary, federally curated, and open scientific datasets, in addition to synthetic data generated through DOE computing resources; and
  • experimental and production tools to enable autonomous and AI-augmented experimentation and manufacturing in high-impact domains.

Within 90 days, the Secretary will identify federal computing, storage, and networking resources available to support the Mission. Within 120 days, he will: identify a set of initial data and model assets for use in the Mission; and develop a plan for incorporating datasets from federally funded research, other agencies, academic institutions, and approved private-sector partners.

Within 240 days, the Secretary will review capabilities across the DOE national laboratories and other participating federal research facilities for robotic laboratories and production facilities with the ability to engage in AI-directed experimentation and manufacturing. Within 270 days, the Secretary will seek to demonstrate an initial operating capability of the Platform for at least one of identified national science and technology challenges.

Within 60 days, the Secretary must identify and submit to the APST a detailed list of at least 20 science and technology challenges of national importance including: advanced manufacturing; biotechnology; critical materials; nuclear fission and fusion energy; quantum information science; and semiconductors and microelectronics.

The APST will review the proposed list within 30 days and, working with the NSTC, coordinate the development of an expanded list that can serve as the initial set of national science and technology challenges to be addressed by the Mission. The Secretary will review and update the list of challenges every year.

The Secretary, in coordination with the APST and the Special Advisor for AI & Crypto, will establish mechanisms for agency collaboration with external partners possessing advanced AI, data, or computing capabilities or scientific domain expertise, including through cooperative research and development agreements, user facility partnerships, or other appropriate arrangements. The APST, through NSTC will identify opportunities for international scientific collaboration to support activities under the Mission.

A White House fact sheet notes: “Despite research budgets soaring since the 1990s, scientific progress has stalled – new drug approvals have declined, and more researchers are needed to achieve the same outputs. Harnessing AI as a scientific tool will revolutionise the way scientific research is conducted…. Research that once took years could now take weeks or months.”

Genesis builds on the existing National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), created in 2020 by the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act to provide a shared national research infrastructure to “accelerate AI and AI-powered discovery and innovation”. NAIRR started as a pilot programme, bringing together a coalition of federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and non-governmental organisations such as OpenAI, Google and Palantir.

The new initiative follows President Trump’s January EO, Removing Barriers to American Leadership In Artificial Intelligence, under which DOE announced plans to co-locate data centres and new energy infrastructure on its lands. Further EOs signed May included measures to expedite the development and deployment of advanced reactors on federal land, with data centres in mind.

EOs in July sought to promote the export of US AI technologies. Also in July, President Trump issued America’s AI Action Plan, identifying nearly a hundred Federal actions intended to accelerate American AI innovation, build AI infrastructure at home, and lead in international diplomacy and security.

In October, the National Nuclear Security Administration issued requests for proposals to build and power AI data centres at the Savannah River Site and the Oak Ridge Reservation, in which the incorporation of “innovative” energy generation such as advanced nuclear reactor technology was encouraged. At the end of October, the DOE announced a new partnership with AMD to launch two new supercomputers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

“Winning the AI race requires new and creative partnerships that will bring together the brightest minds and industries American technology and science has to offer,” Secretary Wright said at the time. “Working with AMD and HPE [Hewlett Packard Enterprise], we’re bringing new capacity online faster than ever before, turning shared innovation into national strength, and proving that America leads when private-public partners build together,” he said.

At the beginning of November, DOE announced further plans to expand Oak Ridge’s Leadership Computer Facility with high-powered Nvidia chips to tackle complex quantum-computing and AI-focused research.

Wright has designated Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil to lead the Genesis initiative, which will mobilise the 17 National Laboratories, industry, and academia to build the integrated platform connecting supercomputers, AI systems and next-generation quantum systems with advanced scientific instruments. DOE said, once complete, the platform will be “the world’s most complex and powerful scientific instrument ever built”.