On Dec. 14, 2023, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) announced that it had created the Center for AI @PNNL to coordinate the pioneering research of hundreds of scientists working on a range of projects focused on science, security and energy resilience.

Researchers at PNNL were among the first to dive into artificial intelligence decades ago. But AI has surged in the past year with the ready availability of generative AI, which allows almost anyone to produce sophisticated—though sometimes errant—text and images with just a small amount of data.

At the same time, AI is a vital tool for serious researchers as well as a subject all its own for scientists to create, explore and validate new ideas. AI also presents an exciting opportunity for PNNL scientists to advance a critical area of science and chart the path forward.

As a DOE Office of Science laboratory, the primary focus of AI at PNNL is on challenges related to science. PNNL scientists don’t simply use existing artificial intelligence techniques to tackle such challenges. Its researchers are transforming the fundamentals of AI-improving or creating programs for researchers around the world.

Many of the applications of AI research at PNNL are focused on energy resilience and on keeping the world secure. Laboratory scientists use AI to improve the operation of the nation’s electrical grid, keeping power flowing to homes and businesses. Others are using machine learning to explore new combinations of compounds that could power the next generation of lithium batteries. Another common application is protection against the proliferation of nuclear materials.