Washington’s new bet on AI and what it means for India

Last week, the United States gently crossed a line that will define again how power is built in the modern world. Through a new initiative called the Genesis Mission, the US Department of Energy announced 26 science and technology challenges that place artificial intelligence at the core of scientific discovery itself.

This is not about using AI to speed up research. It is about letting machines build how science is imagined, tested, and advanced — reducing years of discovery into weeks. When the pace of science changes, the balance of global power changes with it.