Artificial Intelligence

DOE and its National Labs are advancing AI through world-class supercomputers, cutting-edge algorithms and software stacks such as through the Exascale Computing Program and high-quality scientific datasets. With a leading scientific and technical workforce, DOE delivers impactful solutions to address the most critical energy, security, and science challenges of our time. DOE’s state-of-the-art R&D capabilities for both open and secure research and development, coupled strong partnerships across industry, academia, nongovernmental organizations and other Departments and Agencies ensures the Nation’s ability to develop mission-oriented innovation.

How DOE is advancing AI

AI is a broad, emerging technology area that includes machine-based systems that can make predictions, recommendations, or decisions. AI systems are trained to identify patterns in data and can then generalize to answer new questions, generate text or other media, or make autonomous decisions. Machine learning is a set of techniques that can be used to train AI algorithms to improve performance at a task based on data.   

Since the 1960s, DOE has sponsored basic research in applied mathematics and computer science that laid the foundations for AI. Over the decades, DOE’s multi-pronged strategy of investments in hardware design, basic research for innovative AI techniques, and application development have helped propel the field.   

DOE has a track record supporting hardware design for advanced computing resources, including AI. Through the Exascale Computing Project, DOE partnered with industry to successfully achieve a 200x improvement in energy efficiency for high-performance computing. Critical components of today’s Graphic Processing Units – specialized chips that are used in training AI models – were initially developed via DOE’s early investments in high-performance computing.   

Data are the fuel that power AI and DOE’s experimental user facilities generate vast data sets – including data for high energy, nuclear and plasma physics, characterization of materials with X-rays and neutrons, and genomic analysis for biotechnology. To maximize the impact of data, DOE supports development of new methods and algorithms that increase the reliability, robustness, and rigor of AI algorithms and methods to support their use in scientific research. Individual research programs focus on enhancing the analysis of the data for their disciplines to maximize the scientific impact of data.

DOE’s Frontiers in AI for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST) Initiative aims to develop profound new capabilities that will accelerate and advance DOE’s and the United States’ leadership in this critical technology and their use in scientific research.

How AI Advances DOE's Mission

DOE’s investments in AI span the entire department, from scientific discovery to energy applications to national security. We have been applying AI to DOE’s mission areas for decades. Individual research programs focus on enhancing the analysis of the data for their disciplines to maximize the scientific impact of data.
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    AI for Science
    DOE's world-leading supercomputers and expert workforce are uniquely positioned to leverage the power of AI for science at scale.
    November 27, 2024
  • Purple nodes in a web
    AI for Energy
    DOE is at the forefront of applying AI to address key challenges across the energy sector.
    November 27, 2024
  • Power grid with night sky background
    AI for National Security
    The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has a critical mission: safeguarding U.S. national security by maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of the nuclear stockpile while preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials.
    November 27, 2024

Powering AI

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AI applications require robust energy infrastructure to drive growth and innovation. Data centers are projected to consume up to 9% of total U.S. electricity demand by 2030, with the largest growth dedicated to developing AI capabilities and scaling AI applications to millions of consumers. DOE has technical resources to support the data center developers, utilities, state and local officials, and communities to build energy infrastructure to power large load facilities for AI. DOE is also committed to improving the efficiency of AI applications, building on a long history of supercomputer deployment, with multiple research efforts focused on improving the performance of individual chips, algorithms for software, computer systems, and data centers. And AI can also be part of the solution. DOE is exploring ways that AI tools can deploy new clean energy generation, secure the power grid, and reduce the costs of next-generation energy technologies.

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Responsible AI

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While AI brings enormous potential to improve American innovation and prosperity, we also recognize the risks inherent in such technology. AI systems may generate incorrect, unverifiable, and potentially harmful outputs, and any use of AI technology must properly understand and mitigate those risks. DOE is helping advance the science of AI risk and build a safe, secure, and trustworthy AI ecosystem. DOE is leading the way by developing adversarial testing of AI models and systems, particularly against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, as well as against cyber threats to the power grid. We are building AI testbeds to provide developers safe and secure ways to test new AI tools, hardware, and algorithms. We are partnering with academic researchers and other federal agencies to develop privacy-enhancing technologies that will allow widespread deployment of AI tools while mathematically protecting the underlying data.  And we are leading the way with assessments of the scientific capabilities of AI models and understanding model thresholds and performance. DOE’s work on these key issues is part of a national strategy laid out in the AI Executive Order, Management Memo, and National Security Memorandum.

2024 AI Use Case Inventory

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The 2024 Department of Energy (DOE) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Case Inventory complies with the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-24-10.

Download the 2024 AI Use Case Inventory

Artificial Intelligence at DOE

The Department of Energy's cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence capabilities are being developed and deployed to advance science, energy, and national security.

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Supporting Offices

AI is a crosscutting technology that touches every part of DOE’s mission. The Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies coordinates AI activities across DOE and the national laboratories.