Can AI Accelerate Scientific Discovery? Featuring Under Secretary Darío Gil | Betting on America

Why It Matters

Accelerating discovery with AI positions the United States to outpace global competitors, delivering faster solutions to energy, security and health challenges while revitalizing its R&D economy.

Key Takeaways

• DOE's Genesis mission aims to double R&D productivity within decade.
• AI, HPC, and quantum computing will accelerate scientific workflows.
• National labs host 40,000 scientists, forming core of AI-driven research.
• Training AI on simulation data yields predictions 10,000× faster.
• Unified data platforms aim to replicate AlphaFold’s success across sciences.

Summary

The interview with DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Dr. Dario Gil centers on the Genesis mission, a presidentially‑mandated effort to harness artificial intelligence, high‑performance computing and quantum resources across America’s 17 national laboratories. Gil explains that the mission’s bold objective is to double the productivity of the nation’s trillion‑dollar R&D ecosystem within ten years, creating an AI‑agentic framework that streamlines hypothesis generation, experimentation and results sharing.

Key insights include the sheer scale of the DOE’s scientific enterprise—over 40,000 scientists and engineers—and the three‑pillar strategy: a computational platform that fuses AI, HPC and quantum capabilities; a portfolio of 26 national science and technology challenges spanning energy, physics and security; and a workforce initiative to train the next generation of AI‑fluent researchers. By training neural networks on outputs from legacy simulation codes, predictions can be delivered up to 10,000 times faster, dramatically shortening design cycles for projects such as fusion reactors.

Gil cites historical precedents, from the Manhattan Project to the 1990s nuclear‑test‑ban simulations, to illustrate how data‑driven computing has already transformed national security. He highlights the protein‑folding breakthrough: a 1971 Brookhaven X‑ray data set of 200,000 structures enabled DeepMind’s AlphaFold to predict 200 million protein structures in two years, a template the Genesis mission seeks to replicate across materials, batteries, grid data and more.

If successful, the initiative promises to accelerate scientific discovery, reinforce U.S. economic and geopolitical leadership, and create a new pipeline of AI‑savvy scientists. The mission also underscores the critical need for unified, high‑quality data repositories and cross‑sector collaboration to unlock the full potential of AI in research.

Original Description

On April 8, 2026 at 10:00 AM ET, Under Secretary Darío Gil joins Navin Girishankar to discuss the Genesis Mission—a national initiative to rebuild America’s innovation engine. In this wide-ranging conversation, Under Secretary Gil highlights the Mission’s focus on AI-driven scientific discovery and institutional innovations—from public-private partnerships to interagency coordination—aimed at accelerating research productivity. He also addresses research security, allied cooperation, and the long-term vision for a modernized U.S. science and technology ecosystem in an era where innovation has become the currency of power.

This event is made possible through general support to CSIS.

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