US Department of Energy Awards AI Projects for Genesis Mission

The US Department of Energy announced the first set of project awards for its Genesis Mission, a national initiative designed to double US scientific productivity by integrating artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The Request for Applications drew the largest response to a funding opportunity in the department's history, resulting in 278 awards across 342 institutions, including 168 universities, 19 companies, and 87 national laboratories.

Funding targets challenges in commercial fusion, nuclear energy, intelligent chip design, and critical mineral extraction. The largest individual investment is a $60 million, three-year project aimed at enhancing safety and accelerating nuclear facility development. Other notable awards include nearly $1.2 million for two Cornell University teams; one project, led by Jian-Xun Wang, focuses on predicting turbulent flows in energy systems, while another led by Kyle Shen targets materials' electronic properties.

Among the selected initiatives is the HERALD project led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This project partners with the company Valency to build infrastructure for AI agents capable of vetting vast archives of nuclear power research. The goal is to automate the review of legacy data for security compliance, allowing human experts to focus on high-level judgment calls.