The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office announced this week the formation of the First Five Consortium, which will develop and use artificial intelligence (AI) tools for disaster management. The First Five is a partnership with DOE, and Microsoft to improve disaster response, including wildfire prediction, search and rescue, flood control, damage assessments and natural disaster response. "The First Five was formed to bring the best resources from industry, nonprofit and the public sector to use technology to address the need to mitigate the impact of natural disasters while protecting property and lives," said Jermon Bafaty, a White House fellow with DOE, in a conference call. "When you look at 2019, there were 14 disasters that were individually more than a billion [dollars] in damages each," Bafaty said. "As a public-private partnership, we need to be able to pull together the best ideas and understandings to put together the right solutions that we think we'll be able to scale to save lives."

Less than a half-year into its existence, the Energy Department's new Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office officially unveiled its leader. According to a Thursday announcement, the agency's undersecretary for science officially swore in Cheryl Ingstad as the inaugural director of AITO on Feb. 4. "AI technologies will be as transformative to our daily lives as electricity was to American society more than a century ago, and as a world-leading AI enterprise, [Energy] has the power and the obligation to ensure that it is used as a force for good," Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a statement. He added that Ingstad's "proven public and private sector leadership in driving crosscutting, breakthrough technologies at the nexus of energy and national security" made her the agency's "ideal candidate" for the role. According to her LinkedIn profile, Ingstad is an Army veteran and has experience in the Defense Department's cyber operations. The agency also said she was an "early leader" in the Defense Intelligence Agency's Information Operations Branch.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the establishment of the DOE Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO). The Secretary has established the office to serve as the coordinating hub for the work being done across the DOE enterprise in Artificial Intelligence. This action has been taken as part of the President's call for a national AI strategy to ensure AI technologies are developed to positively impact the lives of Americans. DOE-fueled AI is already being used to strengthen our national security and cybersecurity, improve grid resilience, increase environmental sustainability, enable smarter cities, improve water resource management, as well as speed the discovery of new materials and compounds, and further the understanding, prediction, and treatment of disease. DOE's National Labs are home to four of the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world, and we're currently building three next-generation, exascale machines, which will be even faster and more AI-capable computers.

On Friday, September 6, 2019, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the formal establishment of DOE's Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Michael Kratsios: "Under Secretary Perry's leadership, the Department of Energy is critical to our Nation's success in the development and application of artificial intelligence. I commend the Secretary for establishing the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office to coordinate DOE's vast AI efforts and carry out the mission of the Trump Administration's national strategy for American leadership in AI." Representative Bill Foster (D-IL): "Developments in artificial intelligence are at the forefront of technological innovations that are changing our country and our world. The Department of Energy and our world-class national laboratories are leading the way, including in the district I represent, where Argonne National Laboratory is building the world's most advanced supercomputer to power the use of AI for everything from responding to climate change, to fighting cancer, and ensuring our nation's security. DOE's new Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office will play a crucial role in coordinating the work being done in AI and provide support for the researchers across DOE who are on the frontlines of this transformative work. I applaud Secretary Perry for continuing DOE's long history of scientific leadership by establishing this new office, and I look forward to working in Congress to support AITO's work, as well as the continued technological leadership of our national labs."

The Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO), the Department of Energy's center for Artificial Intelligence, will accelerate the delivery of AI-enabled capabilities, scale the department-wide development and impact of AI, and synchronize AI activities to advance the agency's core missions, expand partnerships, and support American AI Leadership.

The Energy Department established its own Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office to coordinate and accelerate the agency's enterprise efforts to leverage the emerging technology, Secretary Rick Perry revealed at a summit in California Friday. "From my perspective, this is a good day to be able to announce the standing up of an office that's really going to have the ability to transform a lot of different areas in this country," Perry said. Speaking in a fireside chat alongside the nation's Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, Perry elaborated on a wide range of Energy's current AI and machine learning applications and endeavors, including strengthening the nation's national security stance, supporting the nuclear stockpile, enabling the internet of things and much more. The former governor of Texas also highlighted AI-enabled accomplishments across the agency's national labs, where inside experts are building three next-generation exascale computers and conducting advanced research on four of the ten fastest supercomputers in the world. "When I came to [Energy] two and a half years ago, we were number three in the world in supercomputing--behind China, and interestingly, Switzerland. During the last 30 months we have increased the funding for the supercomputing capacity of America by 45%," he said.

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Today, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the establishment of the DOE Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office (AITO). The Secretary has established the office to serve as the coordinating hub for the work being done across the DOE enterprise in Artificial Intelligence. This action has been taken as part of the President's call for a national AI strategy to ensure AI technologies are developed to positively impact the lives of Americans. DOE-fueled AI is already being used to strengthen our national security and cybersecurity, improve grid resilience, increase environmental sustainability, enable smarter cities, improve water resource management, as well as speed the discovery of new materials and compounds, and further the understanding, prediction, and treatment of disease. DOE's National Labs are home to four of the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world, and we're currently building three next-generation, exascale machines, which will be even faster and more AI-capable computers.