President Trump Monday proposed cutting federal research spending--except in key areas including artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. Trump's budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 proposes spending $142.2 billion in research and development, 9 percent less than in the current year. The White House says its proposal is 6 percent more than it requested last year. The budget request is something of a gambler's approach to funding American innovation, betting big in select areas. "I find it disappointing and concerning that funding for basic research is down," says Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a policy think tank in Washington, DC. "We just don't know where the next breakthroughs will come from."

He has demanded "goddamned steam" to power the Navy's aircraft carriers and prefers a wall to drones and other technology to secure the country's southern border. He has rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and repeatedly, wrongly, pointed to occasional wintry weather as proof that he's right. And this week, amid a safety scare involving Boeing's 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 airplanes, President Trump complained that modern jets are "too complex to fly." He added: "I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better."

Senate lawmakers late Wednesday confirmed Kelvin Droegemeier, an extreme-weather expert, as the White House's top science and tech adviser, filling a critical administration role that had been vacant for nearly two years under President Trump. Droegemeier, who had served as a top meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, is set to become leader of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, an arm of the White House that helps guide federal research spending and informs the government's policies in areas such as artificial intelligence, climate change, precision medicine and online privacy. Before the Senate confirmed Droegemeier by voice vote, the vacancy at OSTP under Trump had set a record: Never before had a modern president waited so long to install an administrator in that office. The delay had drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and academics, who said the president had erred by forging ahead with his policy agenda -- including his 2017 decision to leave a key international carbon-reduction pact -- without a top science adviser in place. But Trump's decision in July to nominate Droegemeier -- who previously helped guide federal science research under both Democratic and Republican presidents -- earned the White House widespread accolades from the research community.

The US Department of Defense's recently established Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) has finally debuted and will oversee the Pentagon's AI strategy. After a couple of years' worth of paperwork drills, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan released a document at the end of June establishing the JAIC, and stating it would take the next 30 days to figure out what its national mission objectives and personnel needs are. The specifics of how the center will carry out its duties going forward haven't been publicly released, but that's par for the course when dealing with military strategy. Let's just all keep our fingers crossed that whatever defense strategy the Pentagon eventually comes up with is comparable to those of other countries, such as China and Russia, who are all-in on AI at the state level. Because the White House, so far, has dealt with artificial intelligence (and STEM programs in general) by letting big tech do whatever it wants.

President Trump intends to nominate Kelvin Droegemeier, an expert in extreme weather from the University of Oklahoma, as his top science and technology adviser at the White House, according to an administration official. Droegemeier's selection, if approved by the Senate, could soon end a roughly 19-month vacancy at the top of the Office of Science and Technology Policy -- a critical arm of the White House that guides the president on such issues as self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, emerging medical research and climate change. Droegemeier is a meteorologist by trade who has also served in government, including as Oklahoma's secretary of science and technology, and he aided the federal National Science Board under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The Washington Post first reported him as a front-runner for the post in March. His selection drew early praise from the scientific community Tuesday.

More than a year after entering the White House, President Trump still has not selected his top science and technology adviser, leaving unfilled a critical policy post that guides the administration on issues as varied as artificial intelligence, climate change and cancer research. While the White House maintains that it is unconstrained in its work -- and has staffed up to tackle such challenges as closing the country's Internet-access gaps -- the vacancy still troubles policy experts, who feel that Trump would be best served by someone who could double as an emissary to the academic and engineering worlds. "Symbolically, it signals science and technology is at the table in the administration's policymaking," said Kumar Garg, who was an innovation policy aide under President Barack Obama. "But also substantively, because the science adviser is the principal who gets invited to senior strategy meetings ... on critical topics like biosecurity, cybersecurity, [and] how do we make sure America remains competitive against China and Russia in emerging technology." Technically, the White House has two major science and technology posts.