Here’s What’s in Trump’s Most Grandiose AI Executive Order Yet

The title of the executive order is written on Trump’s short side: “Formation Mission Launch.”

It reads in part:

At this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project, which was essential to our victory in World War II and was a critical foundation for the establishment of the Department of Energy and its national laboratories.

According to Michael Kratsios, the president’s science advisor, the Manhattan Project comparison is just the beginning. The Genesis mission is also “the largest mobilization of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program,” we are told.

Then again, the Trump administration is saying things. The president said nuclear weapons tests would begin “immediately,” and that was about a month ago.

But consulting AI.gov, Trump’s fan page for demonstrating his love of AI, and I find that the president has nine notable AI executive orders, dating back to his previous administration, with titles like “Promoting Export of U.S. AI Technology Pool” and “Preventing the Awakening of AI in the Federal government.”

None of them are healthy almost As painfully vague as the “Formation Task.” What is this AI-loving president doing now?

What a “configuration task” is literally supposed to be:

We’ve been promised some sort of superlative AI and automation platform for the federal government. Based on my reading of the program laid out in this arrangement, the Secretary of Energy — fracking magnate Chris Wright — is supposed to consolidate all DOE data sets with those of all federal agencies, and use that data to create “scientific basis models.” Presumably this means government LLMs, or other LXMs used for scientific research.

Our federal government will then use the new AI models to build programs that automate research workflows and accelerate scientific breakthroughs. In other words, we get set-it-and-forget-it federal science. Artificial intelligence does the research, and anyone can come along and scoop up the discoveries like cream from a bucket of milk.

According to Politico, Wright says there will be “an amazing increase in the pace of scientific discovery and innovation.” They’re looking at nuclear fusion, other energy sources, pharmaceuticals, and protein folding — all areas of science and research that fit in well with the AI ​​hype.

What specifically does the plan include?

The Executive Order, in all fairness, sets out to some extent what next year (and beyond) is supposed to look like for this program.

By the 60-day mark: List.

America obtained a document outlining 20 key scientific “challenges” that the Genesis mission could solve.

By the 90-day mark: Take inventory.

America was given a stockpile of computational resources that the Genesis mission could use to build its system.

By the 120-day mark: Plan.

By now, the mission should have improved its data and put it in place to train models.

By the 240-day mark: Another stock.

Wright is supposed to have discovered where robot-led automated scientific experiments could be conducted. Since it sounds like I’m kidding, here’s exactly what the ranking says:

“Within 240 days of the date of this order, the Secretary must review capabilities across DOE’s national laboratories and other participating Federal research facilities for robotic laboratories and production facilities with the ability to engage in AI-guided experimentation and manufacturing, including automated and AI-enhanced workflows and the relevant technical and operational standards required.”

By 270 days: Demo.

We’ve got a proof of concept of sorts for the Genesis Mission platform, focusing on one of the 20 challenges mentioned above.

Within one year (and then every year from now on): Evaluation.

Have positive results been achieved? Did the Genesis mission achieve scientific discoveries? how’s it going? All of this will be in the annual report.

The Genesis mission did a better job, because the flip side of this effort is a set of cuts in federal funding for science. This administration sought to eliminate federal funding for scholarly journals (and subscriptions to them). It has sought to cut $783 million in health research funding, cuts that already appear to be taking effect. It has sought to cut funding for at least 100 studies on climate change. It reduced research spending at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by $100 million, and so on.

The cuts probably had several goals, at least one of which was reducing DEI (remember when people used to talk about DEI?). Another way seems to be to shift science into the realm of things you can automate, long before there are enough AI systems to warrant anyone’s confidence that such a thing could happen.

So get ready, everyone, for automated, low-cost scientific breakthroughs! They’ll be here soon, thanks to Chris Wright and the Genesis mission. Otherwise, some of these funding cuts may seem a bit ridiculous in retrospect.