[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5539 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 5539

To require systematic review of artificial intelligence systems before 
     deployment by the Federal Government, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 16, 2024

 Mr. Welch (for himself and Mr. Lujan) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
                        and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require systematic review of artificial intelligence systems before 
     deployment by the Federal Government, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Trustworthy By Design Artificial 
Intelligence Act of 2024'' or the ``TBD AI Act of 2024''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Artificial intelligence system.--The term ``artificial 
        intelligence system'' means a machine-based system that can, 
        for a given set of machine-defined or human-defined objectives, 
        make or inform predictions, recommendations, or decisions 
        influencing real or virtual environments. Artificial 
        intelligence systems use machine and human-based inputs to--
                    (A) perceive real and virtual environments;
                    (B) abstract such perceptions into models through 
                analysis in an automated manner; and
                    (C) use model inference to formulate options for 
                information or action.
            (2) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
        the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
            (3) Federal agency.--The term ``Federal agency'' means any 
        Federal department, agency, or organization.

SEC. 3. GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATION OF TRUSTWORTHINESS OF ARTIFICIAL 
              INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS.

    (a) Development Required.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Director shall develop and 
        release a set of guidelines for evaluation of the 
        trustworthiness of artificial intelligence systems.
            (2) Use of existing guidelines or elements.--
                    (A) In general.--In carrying out paragraph (1), the 
                Director may use existing guidelines, best practices, 
                or elements of guidelines or best practices that the 
                Director identifies from other sources.
                    (B) Annotation.--If the Director uses guidelines, 
                best practices, or elements of guidelines or best 
                practices pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this 
                paragraph in order to carry out paragraph (1), the 
                Director shall clearly annotate such use in a central 
                location and make such annotations available online to 
                the public.
            (3) Periodic updates.--The Director shall, on a periodic 
        basis but not less frequently than annually, update the 
        guidelines developed pursuant to paragraph (1).
    (b) Components Covered.--The guidelines developed pursuant to 
subsection (a) for evaluation of artificial intelligence systems shall 
cover the following:
            (1) The models used for the artificial intelligence 
        systems.
            (2) The data used and activities conducted in training the 
        artificial intelligence systems, including the collection and 
        filtering of data.
            (3) The processes and techniques applied after initial 
        training to enhance the capabilities of the artificial 
        intelligence systems, such as fine-tuning, reinforcement 
        learning, and other post-training optimization methods.
            (4) Content generated by the artificial intelligence 
        systems.
            (5) The hardware systems used by the artificial 
        intelligence systems.
            (6) Interactions between humans and the artificial 
        intelligence systems that are expected to arise during intended 
        or reasonably foreseeable use of the artificial intelligence 
        systems.
            (7) Risks presented by anthropomorphic artificial 
        intelligence systems.
    (c) Elements of Trustworthiness.--
            (1) In general.--The guidelines developed pursuant to 
        subsection (a) shall cover trustworthiness with respect to the 
        following:
                    (A) Validity and reliability.
                    (B) Safety.
                    (C) Security.
                    (D) Resiliency.
                    (E) Transparency and accountability.
                    (F) Explainability and interpretability.
                    (G) Privacy.
                    (H) Fairness and bias.
                    (I) Such other matters relating to safety, 
                security, or trustworthiness as the Director considers 
                appropriate.
            (2) Protected classes.--The guidelines developed pursuant 
        to subsection (a) shall specifically highlight and consider 
        accuracy and bias risks relating to protected classes under 
        Federal law.
    (d) Applicability.--The Director shall ensure that the guidelines 
developed pursuant to subsection (a) are developed so that they include 
an assessment of the trustworthiness of all components covered under 
subsection (b) with regards to all elements under subsection (c), but 
account for circumstances in which certain assessment methods or 
recommendations may not be applicable to certain components or elements 
may not be applicable.
    (e) Limitation Relating to Synthetic Content.--Under the guidelines 
developed pursuant to subsection (a), the Director shall identify 
appropriate mechanisms to manage the risks from relying on synthetic 
content or content created by artificial intelligence systems to 
improve a dataset or model, or to meet evaluation guidelines.
    (f) Developing Robust Guidelines.--The Director shall ensure that 
the guidelines developed pursuant to subsection (a) are developed in 
such a manner that encourages transparency, cooperation, and 
collaboration with developers or evaluators of artificial intelligence 
systems, academia, and civil society sufficient to independently verify 
the elements set forth under subsection (c)(1).
    (g) Iterative Evaluation.--The Director shall ensure that the 
guidelines developed pursuant to subsection (a) cover how best to 
evaluate the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence systems 
iteratively, throughout the design, development, and deployment 
lifecycle of an artificial intelligence system.
    (h) Report to Congress.--
            (1) In general.--The Director shall submit to Congress a 
        report on any expected barriers to implementing and adhering to 
        the guidelines developed pursuant to subsection (a), especially 
        with respect to transparency, cooperation, or collaboration 
        barriers with developers of artificial intelligence systems.
            (2) Form.--The report under paragraph (1) shall be 
        submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified 
        appendix, if necessary.

SEC. 4. FEDERAL DEPLOYMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS.

    (a) Covered Use Defined.--In this section, with respect to an 
artificial intelligence system, the term ``covered use''--
            (1) means use in any automated decision making; and
            (2) does not include any use that the Director exempts from 
        any portion of the guidelines issued under section 3(a), 
        including any use that--
                    (A) is subject to evaluation by existing national 
                security assessments; or
                    (B) is an edge case, especially a time sensitive or 
                emergency case, as determined by the Director.
    (b) Existing Artificial Intelligence Systems.--With respect to any 
artificial intelligence system deployed for a covered use that is in 
use by a Federal agency before the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Federal agency shall evaluate the artificial intelligence system 
deployment to ensure the artificial intelligence system meets the 
guidelines developed under section 3(a) not later than 2 years after 
the effective date of this section or cease using the artificial 
intelligence system.
    (c) New Artificial Intelligence Systems.--The head of each Federal 
agency shall ensure that each new acquisition or integration of an 
artificial intelligence system by the Federal agency for a covered use 
meets the guidelines developed under section 3(a) prior to deployment 
of the artificial intelligence system.
    (d) Labeling.--
            (1) In general.--The head of each Federal agency shall 
        identify as compliant, and make publicly available, in 
        accordance with all applicable classification requirements and 
        national security restrictions, the documentation of evaluation 
        status and compliance details for, each artificial intelligence 
        system deployment for a covered use by the Federal agency that 
        meets the guidelines developed under section 3(a).
            (2) Noncompliant deployments.--Not later than 2 years after 
        the effective date of this section, the head of each Federal 
        agency that deploys an artificial intelligence system that is 
        not compliant or is not evaluated pursuant to paragraph (1), 
        shall--
                    (A) make publicly available documentation of each 
                such deployment; and
                    (B) with respect to each such deployment, report--
                            (i) the status of the evaluation;
                            (ii) progress made towards compliance;
                            (iii) a clear, specific justification for 
                        any delay; and
                            (iv) any barriers to compliance, including 
                        resource constraints.
            (3) Report to congress.--
                    (A) In general.--Not later than 3 years after the 
                effective date of this section, the head of each 
                Federal agency shall submit to Congress a report of 
                each deployment described in paragraph (2).
                    (B) Form.--The report under subparagraph (A) shall 
                be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a 
                classified appendix, if necessary.
    (e) Chief AI Officers.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 120 days after the 
        effective date of this section, the head of each Federal agency 
        shall designate a Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, with 
        responsibility for the management, governance, acquisition, and 
        oversight processes of the Federal agency relating to 
        artificial intelligence, including implementation of the 
        guidelines developed under section 3(a).
            (2) Full-time employee.--To the extent practicable, each 
        Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer designated under 
        paragraph (1) shall be a full-time employee of the Federal 
        agency on the date of the designation.
            (3) Seniority.--With respect to the Chief Artificial 
        Intelligence Officer of any agency described in section 901(b) 
        of title 31, United States Code, the Chief Artificial 
        Intelligence Officer shall be an executive with a position 
        classified above GS-15 of the General Schedule or the 
        equivalent.
    (f) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on the date 
that the guidelines developed pursuant to section 3(a) are released.
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