[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3409-S3410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 6247. Ms. HASSAN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
her to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle B of title II, add the following:
SEC. 225. PRIZE COMPETITIONS TO ADVANCE ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE INTERPRETABILITY AND ADVERSARIAL
ROBUSTNESS.
(a) Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence
Interpretability Research.--
(1) Interpretability prize competition.--Not later than 270
days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary
of Homeland Security (in this section, referred to as the
``Secretary'') shall commence carrying out at least one prize
competition under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719) to advance
the science of interpretability in a manner relevant to
commercially available or widely used artificial intelligence
products.
(2) Consultation.--In carrying out the prize competition
required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult with--
(A) the Secretary of Commerce;
(B) the Director of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology;
(C) the National Cyber Director;
(D) the Director of the National Science Foundation; and
(E) any industry expert from the artificial intelligence
sector in the United States that the Secretary considers
relevant.
(3) Structure and evaluation criteria.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary shall develop the structure
and evaluation criteria for a prize competition carried out
under paragraph (1) in accordance with the primary purpose
described in that paragraph.
(B) Competition structure.--The Secretary may--
(i) structure a competition under paragraph (1) into one or
more phases, including submission of interpretability
frameworks, submission of interpretable artificial
intelligence models, and unique basic research; and
(ii) open these phases to the same, or to distinct,
contestant pools.
(C) Evaluation considerations.--In developing the
evaluation criteria for the frameworks, models, or methods
submitted for a prize competition under paragraph (1), the
Secretary shall consider--
(i) the degree to which a submission advances broadly
applicable principles of artificial intelligence
interpretability;
(ii) the practical value of a submission in making
artificial intelligence more understandable and reliable in
high-risk, high-value use cases; and
[[Page S3410]]
(iii) the likelihood that the unique research submitted
will create standards for artificial intelligence
interpretability in the government or industry.
(4) Program administration.--The Secretary may enter into
contracts, cooperative agreements, or other agreements with
for-profit or nonprofit entities or State, territorial,
local, or Tribal agencies to design and administer any prize
competition carried out under paragraph (1).
(b) Prize Competition for Artificial Intelligence
Adversarial Robustness Research.--
(1) Adversarial robustness prize competition.--Not later
than 270 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the
Secretary shall commence carrying out at least one prize
competition under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler
Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719) to develop
capable artificial intelligence models that are designed to
exhibit adversarial robustness in circumstances necessary for
at least one high-impact, high-risk application in government
or industry.
(2) Consultation.--In carrying out a prize competition
required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consult with--
(A) the Secretary of Commerce;
(B) the Director of the Institute of Standards and
Technology;
(C) the National Cyber Director;
(D) the Director of the National Science Foundation;
(E) any industry expert from the artificial intelligence
sector in the United States that the Secretary considers
relevant; and
(F) the head of any Federal agency who has authority or
expertise in a high-impact, high-risk application of
artificial intelligence that could be an appropriate subject
for a prize competition under paragraph (1).
(3) Structure and evaluation criteria.--
(A) In general.--The Secretary shall develop the structure
and evaluation criteria for a prize competition carried out
under paragraph (1) in accordance with the primary purpose
described in that paragraph.
(B) Competition structure.--The Secretary may--
(i) structure a competition under paragraph (1) into one or
more phases, including submission of adversarial robustness
frameworks, submission of artificial intelligence models, and
red-teaming; and
(ii) open these phases to the same, or to distinct,
contestant pools.
(C) Evaluation considerations.--In developing the
evaluation criteria for the frameworks, models, or methods
submitted for a prize competition under paragraph (1), the
Secretary shall consider--
(i) the degree to which a submission advances broadly
applicable principles of artificial intelligence robustness;
and
(ii) the practical value of the submission in reducing the
risk of adversarial attacks in high-risk, high-value use
cases of artificial intelligence.
(4) Program administration.--The Secretary may enter into
contracts, cooperative agreements, or other agreements with
for-profit or nonprofit entities or State, territorial,
local, or Tribal agencies to design and administer any prize
competition carried out under paragraph (1).
(c) Tracking and Reporting.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date on
which the first prize competition concludes, the Secretary
shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a
report that includes--
(A) an evaluation of how the results of the competitions
inform the fields of interpretability and adversarial
robustness;
(B) an assessment of any gaps in these fields identified by
the Secretary over the course of the competitions; and
(C) any suggested action that Congress should take to
advance the fields of interpretability, adversarial
robustness, and any related research.
(2) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this
section, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs of the Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of
Representatives.
(d) Appropriations.--There is authorized to be appropriated
to the Secretary to carry out this section $10,000,000 for
the period of fiscal years 2027 through 2030.
(e) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``adversarial robustness'' means the degree to
which an artificial intelligence model is able to resist
attacks that would induce it to produce incorrect,
restricted, or harmful outputs, while maintaining integrity,
reliability, and privacy.
(2) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning
given the term in section 5002 of the National Artificial
Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).
(3) The term ``interpretability'' means the degree to which
humans are able to accurately understand how an artificial
intelligence model makes decisions and considers inputs and
how the outputs or behaviors of the model respond to a change
in the inputs.
(4) The term ``red-teaming'' means a structured,
interactive, and adversarial process to test an artificial
intelligence system by simulating real-world actions to find
vulnerabilities or flaws in the system.
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