Imagine that the United States Department of Energy is shaping the future of technologies that could change the world right now. In December 2025, Darío Gil, the department's Under Secretary for Science, testified before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He spoke about the agency's top priorities—research into artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and fusion energy. These areas are not just buzzwords, but real priorities intended to help the US win the global innovation race.
Darío Gil explained that research into emerging technologies dominates the department's plans. They are focusing on aligning with the goals of President Donald Trump's administration, which wants to ensure that the US leads in artificial intelligence. Gil mentioned a new initiative called the Genesis Mission, which President Trump announced last month. He compared the mission to projects such as the Manhattan Project or Apollo—massive efforts intended to deliver significant returns on taxpayers' investments and strengthen American technological and strategic leadership.
What is the Genesis Mission?
The Genesis Mission is intended to be an integrated discovery platform that will bring together national laboratories, universities, and industry partners. Its goal is to create new artificial intelligence applications. Gil announced an initial investment of $320 million (approximately CZK 7.36 billion) in two initiatives: the American Science Cloud and the Transformational Model Consortia. These projects were created through legislation called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and will help distribute funding across the department's network of national laboratories.
At the heart of these efforts is the development of a platform and the creation of a set of science and engineering challenges. These concern energy, national security, and scientific discovery. Genesis focuses on developing experimental artificial intelligence applications and running them on the country's network of high-performance supercomputers. This means that scientists will collect data and train new AI models specifically for scientific purposes.
Quantum computing as the next big thing
In addition to artificial intelligence, Gil highlighted quantum computing as an area they want to integrate into AI and supercomputing infrastructure. Gil, who previously oversaw scientific research at IBM, including assets in quantum information science and technology, said that combining AI and quantum computing would revolutionize science and technology. According to him, this will make it possible to combine advanced AI models with still-imperfect quantum systems.
Gil described AI and quantum computing as fundamental elements of new supercomputing platforms. These technologies are expected to change the way we understand the natural world. They are the new scientific tools of our time, much like telescopes or microscopes, which help us see things that are large, distant, or small. AI and quantum supercomputers are intended to help process complex phenomena.
In addition, Gil expressed support for reauthorizing the National Quantum Initiative Act, an important law funding quantum information science. This law expired in 2023 and has been awaiting approval in Congress ever since.
Fusion and nuclear energy on the rise
Gil also addressed accelerating the development of nuclear and fusion energy as another priority. He said that the department issued an official roadmap for commercial fusion energy in October. It is now working with partners from the private sector and academia to assess what the US needs to scale up fusion power plants in the early 2030s.
Gil presented a vision in which these technologies intersect. The Department of Energy wants to create an ecosystem where AI assists with quantum computing, supporting advances in energy, including fusion. This is intended to ensure that the US remains at the forefront of global innovation.
Sources: nextgov.com
