Morning Wire - Manhattan Project 2.0: The Home Front Fight for AI | 1.2.26

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Behind the heavily guarded gates of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee lie some of the government's latest efforts in the war for AI dominance. In a new Daily Wire documentary, Senior Editor Cabot Phillips takes us inside the facility as the U.S. races to finish what it’s calling the second Manhattan Project. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Ep. 2559 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Daily Wire Shop - Visit https://dailywire.com/shop today! - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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of voyage. The conditions can't As part of their effort to achieve AI dominance, the Trump administration has launched the new Manhattan Project, pouring billions of dollars into AI research and infrastructure. Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips recently debuted a new documentary on that AI arms race. He joins us now. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howl. This is a special edition of Morning Wire.

Every time I walk out in public wearing a Daily Wire tea, I get one of two reactions, a nod of respect or a look of absolute horror. And honestly, I love both. So if you're not afraid to say that men can't get pregnant or that you don't buy the latest conspiracy spanning 12 different countries, then congrats. You're not one of the crazy ones. Head over to dailywire.com slash shop and check out our exclusive merch you won't find anywhere else. Tees, hats, hoodies, drinkwear, you name it. Perfect for walking conservative talk and triggering your local whole foods. That's dailywire.com slash shop. So we'll talk about your new documentary in a second, but first, tell us about the

administration's efforts to boost AI development. Yeah, so as AI has burst onto the scene in recent years, most of the development has been happening in the private sector. It's Silicon Valley companies. It's Open AI, Google, Microsoft, all the big players. But the Trump administration is now saying, hey, we want in on this. We want to help what you guys are doing. And they're adamant that the AI arms race is really a national security issue, similar to the nuclear arms race or the space race that was going on back in the 50s and 60s. And they're now viewing. AI development in the U.S. as similar to the Manhattan Project during World War II, this idea of, hey, if the Soviets or someone else is to get a nuclear bomb before us, it's going to shift the entire

global balance of power. And they're now feeling that way with AI. If China or Russia becomes the AI leader, we're going to fall behind. It's going to have huge consequences. And so now Trump is clear that he wants the federal government playing a huge role here, if nothing else, for national security. So last month, he signed this new executive order. that they're calling the Genesis mission. This is going to connect 40,000 scientists all around the country at 17 different national labs. Wow.

And this is the big part. So for the first time, they're all going to be working on the same AI system. And that's big because a lot of AI scientists are working on all of these different programs and products. There's not really any, like, central hub where they're sharing data. And the Trump administration is hopefully trying to get those scientists all on the same page. So 40,000 different scientists working on Skynet.

Basically. Yeah. There's a data sharing development to this. Can you tell us about that? Right. This is one of the interesting parts. So one of the key parts of AI development is training your software on data. And it requires huge amounts of data to train these new systems.

And if there's one thing the federal government has, it is a lot of data. So this executive order is going to, for the first time, provide private companies access to huge troves of government data on everything from energy grids and weather patterns to do. geological surveys and health care, basically anything they want, they now have access to to train these new AI models. And then from there, the AI companies are being directed to focus in on core issues that the White House calls challenges of national importance. So they're telling them, hey, you can use our data, but you have to use it to research four main things, advanced manufacturing, robotics, biotechnology, and nuclear fission. So basically, President Trump is telling the private sector, hey, we have the data, we have the money, we have the infrastructure, you have the technology

and scientists, let's work together. And I'm sure there's lots of questions about what data is being given access to, what they can use it for. You're talking about, look, they've got a mission in terms of the different focuses, but there's probably some nervousness about access to data that the U.S. government has, correct? Yeah, there is. And the White House has assured people, look, the data we're giving is, it either has nothing

to do with privacy. They said we're not going to violate anyone's privacy with the data that we're giving out. So it's, again, it's weather patterns, it's geological surveys, things like that. One of the big data sets is actually the ocean floor. So they're just giving them all the data we have that we've gotten from mapping the ocean floor, things of that nature. But they are assuring people, hey, we're not giving out any sort of private information because that would potentially fall into the hands of the Chinese or Russians. So anything we're giving out is nothing that people would be worried about getting out. AI uses a lot of energy and it uses a lot of water specifically. We have noticed recently some of the elite class walking back some of their

climate concern, specifically Bill Gates. Is that because people think we need to be generating more power for AI and that's going to be a big part of this? That is part of it. So during this documentary, I went to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. That's home to the original Manhattan Project. The world's first nuclear fission reactor is there in Oak Ridge. I talked to a number of scientists, and also a number of political figures, senators, Congress members, the Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and all of the political figures did have a similar message, which was that over the last four years under President Biden, we have seen this crackdown on energy. And they said a lot of these climate policies actually led the U.S. to fall behind on AI research because so much of it was

just restraining, you know, the use of coal and natural gas and oil and, you know, their water restrictions. And so they are saying, hey, a big part of this is peeling back a lot of those climate regulations that were hindering the use of AI. Those initiatives absolutely go hand in hand. And that's why I went to Oak Ridge, because that is where we're doing a lot of the top nuclear research. And basically the Trump administration saying this is going to be all hands on deck type approach. And the current energy grid that we have, it's not going to be able to support the type of energy we're going to need for how many AI data centers we're going to be building in the future. And so they're saying, hey, we're knocking on the door, we need more energy, where else can we turn? Nuclear seems to be the best place to do that.

Historically, I think over the past couple years, the U.S. energy grid has not grown very much. That is something that President Trump and Secretary Wright, they are actually very enthusiastic about increasing the supply of energy because it is necessary for such energy-intensive manufacturing process is what we do. The thing that you should think of AI is doing is manufacturing energy into intelligence. And one of the things about AI is that it not only is something that consumes energy, but it actually can unlock more energy. Here's what Energy Secretary Chris Wright actually had to say about that. We include some of this conversation in the documentary, but we'll play a clip of that now for folks. In the Manhattan Project, it was critical that we developed an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany did.

Think of the world today if they had led and had an atomic bomb before we did. The world would be unrecognizable. AI's been around for a long time, but it's hitting critical mass now. In the next few years, AI is going to change our world, not just economically, but in science and also in national defense. China is working aggressively at AI. If they got a meaningful lead on us in AI, it will be a different world in the future. We have to lead and win the AI race, just like we did Manhattan Project. This is Manhattan Project 2.

That was great self-promotion for your documentary, by the way. Thank you. So in your documentary, you talk about the neutron scattering device. Would you explain that? This was wild. At one point, one of the scientists comes over to us and says, hey, can I show you something kind of cool? And they had this like look in their eye and they said, okay, so we go through 10 different layers

of security and they have all these badges, everyone's swiping. So we meet the lead scientist of the neutron scattering division. Here's a little bit of what he had to say. He was a character for sure, a lot of fun talking to them. So what they do is they take that data and then they shove it into a machine learning or AI. So you need something, some computer, some human intelligence or artificial intelligence to interpret that pattern. When I explain it like that, it sounds quite simple.

And in principle, it is beautifully simple. And he takes us to this giant facility. It's this warehouse multiple football fields long. And there are all of these metal tubes that run the length. Some of them are a quarter mile or more longer. And there's underground components and overground. And I'm thinking, what am I looking at right now? And essentially what this device does is it,

shoots neutrons near the speed of light, incredibly fast, and it shoots them into little compartments where you can put little devices, you can put different elements, you can put even pieces of machinery, you can put microchips, and when the neutron is fired into it, it bounces around inside of the device and gives you this essentially, basically a 3D model of what you're looking at. They compared it almost like an MRI, but with much higher resolution. And then there are even bigger parts of the device where you can put things like a car engine into it. And then you can shoot neutrons into it. And he showed me, you can turn the engine on while you're doing this.

And then it can help you find inefficiencies in the engine. And so the scientists are using this to also help American manufacturing. They're saying this can help us make products more energy efficient. It can help us become more profitable as a country. And the other cool part was that any scientists from around the country can apply and they can show them, hey, here's the proof of concept, basically. Here's why I need to use this device. here's what I'm going to use it for.

And so there's this entrepreneurial aspect where the federal government is opening up this incredible national laboratory, these multi-billion dollar devices, to scientists from around the country who have good ideas, who go in and they do their research, and then the next scientist comes in the next week. And you can reserve different portions of this device for a few days at a time. So people from all over the country fly in to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to conduct their experiments. Now, another piece of technology you talk about in the documentary is the Frontier, supercomputer? What does that do? That does basically whatever you want it to do.

It's one of the three most powerful computers on planet Earth. It accounts for basically millions of these right here, all in one. You walk in, and the computer is so large that you walk endless rows, and there's row after row after row of these cabinets, and they pull out little blades, and each blade has more computing power than every computer on Earth before the year 2000. It's mind-blowing how powerful this computer is. And again, this computer is running super sophisticated AI models.

So it's constantly being updated. And AI researchers come from around the country to train their models on the existing knowledge that's within this computer. And so it's kind of this cascading effect where the more knowledge and the more advanced this computer becomes, other scientists come in and it makes their existing AI models more knowledgeable, if you will. And so it's, again, the U.S. government and the Trump administration is saying, we want to open this up for all of our top scientists. And so obviously there are some concerns about let's make sure that the people that are coming here are using this for the right purposes and are going to help America. But the Trump team is, again, they're saying all hands on deck, let's get all the AI scientists that we can here. Collaboration is the name of the game. I heard that over and over throughout my visit there, collaborating with private sector, public sector.

Let's all work together because if we don't, China is going to do it. Russia's going to do it. Our adversaries are happy to step in. Now, you mentioned that there are three of these supercomputers worldwide. Who are our other top competitors here? China, by far. That was the number one country that I heard referenced by the political leaders, by the scientists. And it's clear that the Trump administration views China as the number one adversary here. Not only are they the only country that is comparable when it comes to chip production. That's why the president has been so adamant about getting rare earth

minerals here in the U.S., about pouring billions and billions of dollars into chip manufacturing here because they're saying, hey, China's are only real competitor on this, and they have all of the resources within their country or they have deals with other countries to get those rare earth minerals. And so the concern is absolutely the Chinese Communist Party. Well, we could keep talking forever. But final question on this, your favorite part of this trip, what was your biggest takeaway? My favorite part actually had nothing to do with AI. It was more about the nuclear side. they took us into the original nuclear fission reactor from the Manhattan Project. I shouldn't say they took us into it.

If we went into it, I don't think I would be here right now because there's still a lot of radiation there. But they gave us a private tour of the, again, this was the first place on planet Earth where there was nuclear fission taking place. And they still have the original building that's standing. It's very cool to see. And they walked us through the graphite reactor and how these brave hero scientists were really risking their lives to create the, nuclear bomb that ultimately ended the war. And getting that private tour, there were spots where it's just giant concrete slabs where you have to crawl on all fours to get to the little holes in the wall where you can put the graphite in. It was unbelievable to see. And seeing the original computers that

they had that they were working with, they weren't even really computers. It was just these giant rusty metal devices thinking, how did these scientists figure this out with the technology they had? And it just left you in awe of realizing what America is capable of when we have our brightest minds working on it. And there was that optimism. now of them. Everyone's saying there, the scientists saying there, the politicians saying there, we did it once, we've done it many times over the years, we have to now do it again. Like, we're America, we can do this, but we got to collaborate. Well, really exciting project. A little scary some aspects of it. I mean, the power in that, in the rooms that you were in, it's incredible.

Where can people watch this documentary? Yeah, go on YouTube, type in Manhattan Project 2.0. It's on the DailyWire YouTube. The easiest way to watch it, though, go to dailywire.com or DailyWire Plus app, and you can watch it. watch it there directly on platform as well. Yeah, great stuff as always, Kabbat. Thanks so much for joining us. Absolutely, guys. AI is going to change our world.

China is working aggressively. If they got a meaningful lead on us in AI, it will be a different world in the future. All right, what is this? This is one blade of the frontier supercomputer. Wow. What we have to do here in America is out innovate everybody on the planet.

The risk for all of this is it's safe. We realize the power, but we also realize the great responsibility that comes with it. I'm