Washington, DC, July 16, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Energy announced a roadmap for the Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) in which the agency and its 17 national labs “aims to build the world’s most powerful integrated scientific AI systems for science, energy, and national security, in collaboration with academic and industry partners.”
DOE said the goal of FASST is to transform the vast repositories of scientific data produced at DOE user facilities to be AI-ready and build the next-generation of highly energy efficient AI supercomputers. This national AI capability will be designed to allow U.S. researchers, including the 40,000 scientists at the national labs, to develop trustworthy foundation AI models to for scientific and energy applications.
“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.”
Further FASST details can be found here.
As part of today’s announcement, DOE said: “The speed and scale with which AI is developing requires investment in a strategic capability now. Without FASST, the United States stands to lose its competitive scientific edge and ability to maintain our national and economic security, will have a less diverse and competitive innovation AI ecosystem, will not have the independent technical expertise necessary to govern AI, and will lose the nation’s ability to attract and train a talented workforce. Through FASST, we will meet the mission needs of national security, energy security, and scientific discovery that will support sustained economic prosperity for the nation for decades to come.”
