With the rapid growth of applications requiring laser and optical functional glasses, the optical and mechanical properties of optical functional glass have become more diversified. Furthermore, the uncertainty of glass structure and the continuously adjustable properties of components hinder the rapid research and development of new optical functional glass materials. To eliminate the traditional "trial-and-error" research mode, reduce the cost and cycle of glass material development, and improve the predictability of glass material design and preparation process, the "material genome initiative" was proposed. The material genome initiative combines high-performance computing, data, and experiments to quantitatively and accurately predict the properties of materials using their components, thereby guiding the design and development of new materials. This paper summarizes different theories and current modeling processes of material genetic engineering used in laser and optical functional glasses. These approaches can be divided into physical approaches using the derivation of physical definitions, empirical methods using statistical analysis of experimental data, and theory-empirical approaches that combine theory and experience. Therefore, with respect to laser glass and optical functional glass materials, this paper focuses on the latest progress in material genetic engineering and discusses directions for future development.