Energy Department announces 26 Genesis Mission science and technology challenges
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced 26 science and technology challenges of national importance to advance the Genesis Mission and accelerate innovation and discovery through artificial intelligence (AI).
The challenges span DOE’s discovery science, energy and national security missions. Each was selected for its potential to deliver measurable benefits and to accelerate advancements through the Genesis Mission’s AI platforms and public-private partnerships.
“These challenges represent a bold step toward a future where science moves at the speed of imagination because of AI,” said DOE Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission lead Dr. 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.”
The Genesis Mission is designed to mobilize America’s scientific infrastructure and AI ingenuity to increase the pace of discovery. “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," said Assistant to the President and Director of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios.
“AI has tremendous potential,” said DOE Acting Under Secretary of Energy Alex Fitzsimmons. “These Genesis Mission challenges will help DOE leverage AI-enabled tools to build a more affordable, reliable and secure energy system for the American people.”
Working in partnership with DOE’s national laboratories, industry and academia, these efforts are designed to deliver tangible results. Examples include:
- scaling the grid: Using AI to improve power grid planning, interconnection, operations and security, enabling faster decisions and improving electricity cost and reliability by up to 10%
- harnessing historic nuclear data: digitizing eight decades of nuclear research to create a secure, searchable database to inform future energy and security decisions
- enhancing particle accelerators: deploying AI to make accelerators adaptive and autonomous
- designing materials with predictable functionality: using AI to design materials based on performance goals
- unleashing subsurface strategic energy assets: applying AI to model underground environments for energy development
- achieving AI-driven autonomous laboratories: automating experiments to speed discovery of new drugs, advanced materials and next-generation energy technologies
- reenvisioning advanced manufacturing and industrial productivity: bridging research and production with AI-driven systems that strengthen supply chains, improve manufacturing productivity and capability, speed the design to production loop and create American jobs
- discovering quantum algorithms with AI: accelerating quantum algorithm development to unlock breakthroughs in energy, chemistry and logistics
- recentering microelectronics in America: advancing next-generation microelectronics.
Through an integrated platform connecting the world’s supercomputers, experimental facilities, AI systems and unique scientific data sets, the Genesis Mission aims to double the productivity and impact of U.S. research and development within a decade. This first set of challenges will demonstrate how AI can deliver faster discovery, stronger energy systems and lasting leadership in science, technology and national security.
“The Genesis Mission harnesses AI to strengthen America’s national security,” said DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Brandon Williams. “By leveraging AI across our missions, from modernizing our nuclear deterrent to safeguarding critical infrastructure, we will ensure America remains at the forefront of global security and technological leadership.”
