President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order establishing “Mission Genesis” in the United States, an initiative aimed at multiplying the government’s capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate scientific research and discoveries.
The plan is part of the Republican administration’s strategy to boost the race in big technologies and maintain the advantage over China in AIand consolidate America’s dominance in this rapidly growing field.
The White House is also looking for ways to legally prevent states from implementing their own AI regulations and has threatened to withdraw federal aid from those who do so.
The order entrusts the Department of Energy build an integrated AI platform that will combine the nation’s supercomputers, federal scientific data sets, and research facilities to accelerate discoveries in fields ranging from nuclear fusion to semiconductor manufacturing.
“The United States is in a race for global technological dominance in the development of artificial intelligence,” says the order, describing AI as “an important frontier for scientific discovery and economic growth.”
The axis of the initiative is the “American Science and Security Platform“, which will provide investigators with access to high-performance computing resources, AI modeling tools and federal data sets to automate investigations.
The platform aims to demonstrate initial operational capability within nine months.
The Department of Energy must develop a list of 20 priorities within 60 days for the main scientific challenges.
Priority domains include advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear energy, quantum computing and semiconductors, all areas where the United States faces a growing competition from china.
The order provides for partnerships with private companies, universities and national laboratories, while requiring strict cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive research.
