The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced its roadmap for the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) initiative. This program aims to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for public benefit, focusing on scientific discovery, energy research, and national security.
"Artificial intelligence is an innovative technology that can help unleash breakthroughs in energy technologies and enhance our national security," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "FASST builds on DOE's role as the nation's steward of advanced supercomputing and research infrastructure across our 17 national labs to provide a national capability in AI and enable technological breakthroughs for decades to come."
The FASST initiative will leverage key DOE infrastructure and assets to create an integrated scientific AI system. The plan includes transforming scientific data repositories at DOE user facilities to be AI-ready and developing next-generation energy-efficient AI supercomputers. This will allow U.S. researchers, including the 40,000 scientists at the national labs, to develop trustworthy foundation AI models for various applications such as discovering new battery materials, deploying smart grid infrastructure, and achieving breakthroughs in fusion energy.
Early successes with AI have already been demonstrated through DOE's national laboratories:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab announced clinical trials for a cancer drug designed with AI and supercomputing infrastructure in partnership with BridgeBio.
- Pacific Northwest National Lab discovered a new battery material using AI in collaboration with Microsoft.
These early achievements set the stage for FASST to build a national AI capability that meets the country's needs in national security, energy security, and scientific discovery.
