SCIENCE

Big AI Boost for US Science

Washington, D.C.Tue Sep 08 2026
Big AI Boost for US Science

The government just put more than five billion dollars into a new AI push for science. It’s called the Genesis Mission and is run by the Energy Department. This is the biggest federal science shake‑up we’ve seen in eighty years.

They chose 278 projects from a pool of over five thousand submissions. More than fifteen different federal agencies are chipping in money, data, labs and other help. The mission started after an executive order in November 2025.

The single biggest chunk is sixty million dollars for a three‑year nuclear project named Prometheus. AI will help design, license, build and run reactors. That project already pulled in over two hundred million from industry and thirty million from private investors. Other money goes to biomedical work, power‑grid reliability, national security, quantum computing and making tiny electronics.

At the same time, the White House science adviser gave the president a report titled Science: A New Golden Age. It argues that funding should move from big universities to individual scientists and AI‑driven teams. Agencies that control at least three billion of research money have ninety days to show how they’ll change. The goal is to reshape about two hundred billion of yearly science spending. The report points to the NIH Pioneer Award as a model for flexible grants. It also highlights two national goals: getting commercial fusion power working and sending Americans back to the Moon by 2028.

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