WASHINGTON – The Japanese and U.S. governments announced a five-year plan on Thursday to jointly provide $1 billion for the development of scientific technologies using artificial intelligence (AI).
It is part of a U.S. national project called Genesis Mission, and Japan is the first country to cooperate. Through the plan, the two countries aim to deepen cooperation in advanced science fields, such as quantum technologies, nuclear fusion and biotechnologies.
Each government will contribute $500 million under the plan, which is intended to significantly reduce the research time by using AI and encourage joint international research and development. The plan is also aimed at helping the two nations maintain their upper hand over China in technology development.
According to the U.S. Energy Department, both governments will work together on joint projects among U.S. national laboratories and Japanese institutes including Riken and the University of Tokyo to develop AI- and robotics-powered next-generation autonomous laboratories, which conduct complex experiments automatically.
Genesis Mission was announced by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump last November to accelerate research in sectors including energy, biotechnologies and semiconductors by leveraging supercomputers, AI and government-held scientific data.
Major U.S. technology companies, including OpenAI, the developer of generative AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, Anthropic, which has developed state-of-the-art AI model Claude Mythos, and semiconductor maker Nvidia, are members of the project.
The U.S. government plans to double productivity in the science field over the next decade under Genesis Mission, seen as a national project on par with the Manhattan Project during World War II, which developed nuclear weapons, and the Apollo Program, which led to the first human landing on the moon in 1969.