The U.S. government is making artificial intelligence the centerpiece of its federal science policy. In the report Science: A New Golden Age, published on July 21, the administration outlined new priorities for the roughly $200B federal research and development budget.
The biggest change is that research projects where AI serves as the foundation of scientific work, rather than just a supporting tool, will receive priority when funding is allocated. The administration believes such systems will accelerate scientific discovery.
AI Will Become Part of the Scientific Process
The White House will also expand the Genesis Mission program, launched in November 2025. The initiative brings together the Department of Energy's national laboratory supercomputers, federal scientific databases, AI models, and computing resources provided by private companies.
The administration expects AI agents to independently generate scientific hypotheses, run experiments, and analyze results. Officials believe this could double the productivity of American science over the next decade.
Other new priorities include developing autonomous laboratories, scientific foundation models, systems for verifying research results, and open interfaces for robotic research facilities.
“The science funding system has changed very little over the past 20 to 30 years. The focus is now shifting toward supporting individual scientists and AI tools that can accelerate breakthroughs in quantum computing, fusion energy, and other strategically important fields,” the report says.