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.