ARLINGTON, VA – Charles Ball was named the lead for the Genesis Mission at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the agency’s head Brandon Williams said Tuesday in his keynote at Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
The Genesis Mission is an executive order from November by President Donald Trump which calls for a national effort to use artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate “the speed of scientific discovery” for national security development purposes. Shortly after the executive order was released, NNSA published a request for information from interested entities with aims to incorporate AI into the agency’s critical operations.
“NNSA is proud to take an important role in this effort, and I’m glad that Charles Ball can be here,” who is the “lead for the Genesis Mission,” Williams said.
Ball’s official title is senior advisor for artificial intelligence, an NNSA spokesperson told the Monitor Tuesday. “Charles will be responsible for providing strategic guidance on advanced Artificial Intelligence and related emerging technology issues, including data management and digital transformation, to DOE, NNSA, and our labs, plants, and sites,” the spokesperson said.
Ball was formerly deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Threat Reduction and Arms Control. His tenure in the nuclear space also includes over 25 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in policy and leadership positions in counterproliferation and counterterrorism. He is also a retired intelligence officer from the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Ball received his bachelor of arts from Duke University and his doctorate from the London School of Economics. His post-doctoral fellowship was completed at Los Alamos National Laboratory.