In an interview with Tyler Cowen on 22 October 2026, Michael Kratsios, Trump's chief science and technology adviser, laid out in detail the essence of the report "Science: A New Golden Age." He stated plainly that Vannevar Bush's linear model, in which the government funds basic research at universities and industry commercializes it, is outdated. Instead, the emphasis is on "superintelligence" — as Kratsios calls advanced AI — as the main tool for accelerating discoveries in the national laboratories through the Genesis Mission project.
For Kratsios, this step is logical. During Trump's first presidency he served as the United States chief technology officer, and before that he worked at Peter Thiel's investment firm and at Scale AI. His experience as an investor and technologist tells him that the government should not simply hand out grants, but set priorities and provide access to computing power, where the private sector is already investing more than ever.
The report and Kratsios's subsequent statements reveal a consistent pattern: he has always advocated lowering regulatory barriers for new technologies — from drones to AI diagnostics. Now the same logic is being applied to science as a whole. The focus is shifting from the volume of funding to effectiveness: "better less money on the right things than more on the wrong ones."
At the same time, Kratsios acknowledges that Congress kept the NIH's previous appropriations, while the president proposed a record R&D budget. Critics, however, point to cuts in certain areas and less emphasis on universities. Kratsios himself sees this not as a rejection of science but as a restructuring of the ecosystem for a new reality in which private capital, philanthropy and the national laboratories play a larger role.
A key element of the plan is the Genesis Mission: a federal "instrument" built on supercomputers, available to all agencies for AI-accelerated research in chemistry, materials science and biomedicine. Kratsios stresses that superintelligence will become "the biggest breakthrough in the history of scientific discovery."
This approach confirms Kratsios's long-standing style: he is not afraid to change institutions if they do not match technological shifts. His reputation as a technocrat-investor rather than an academic scientist explains why priority is given to applied results and partnerships with industry rather than traditional "blue-sky" research.
Ultimately, Kratsios's plan is not merely an update of science policy but an attempt to embed American science in an era where AI is already changing the rules of the game. Success will depend on whether it is possible to maintain a balance between efficiency and fundamental discoveries, which do not always bring a quick ROI.
