[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4664 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4664
To require the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to promote
the use of artificial intelligence to support the missions of the
Department of Energy, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 10, 2024
Mr. Manchin (for himself and Ms. Murkowski) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to promote
the use of artificial intelligence to support the missions of the
Department of Energy, 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 ``Department of Energy AI Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that--
(1) the Department has a leading role to play in making the
most of the potential of artificial intelligence to advance the
missions of the Department relating to national security,
science, and energy (including critical materials);
(2) the 17 National Laboratories employ over 40,000
scientists, engineers, and researchers with decades of
experience developing world-leading advanced computational
algorithms, computer science research, experimentation, and
applications in machine learning that underlie artificial
intelligence;
(3) the NNSA manages the Stockpile Stewardship Program
established under section 4201 of the Atomic Energy Defense Act
(50 U.S.C. 2521), which includes the Advanced Simulation and
Computing program, that provides critical classified and
unclassified computing capabilities to sustain the nuclear
stockpile of the United States;
(4) for decades, the Department has led the world in the
design, construction, and operation of the preeminent high-
performance computing systems of the United States, which
benefit the scientific and economic competitiveness of the
United States across many sectors, including energy, critical
materials, biotechnology, and national security;
(5) across the network of 34 user facilities of the
Department, scientists generate tremendous volumes of high-
quality open data across diverse research areas, while the NNSA
has always generated the foremost datasets in the world on
nuclear deterrence and strategic weapons;
(6) the unrivaled quantity and quality of open and
classified scientific datasets of the Department is a unique
asset to rapidly develop frontier AI models;
(7) the Department already develops cutting-edge AI models
to execute the broad mission of the Department, including AI
models of the Department that are used to forecast disease
transmission for COVID-19, and address critical material issues
and emerging nuclear security missions;
(8) the AI capabilities of the Department will underpin and
jumpstart a dedicated, focused, and centralized AI program; and
(9) under section 4.1(b) of Executive Order 14110 (88 Fed.
Reg. 75191 (November 1, 2023)) (relating to the safe, secure,
and trustworthy development and use of artificial
intelligence), the Secretary is tasked to lead development in
testbeds, national security protections, and assessment of
artificial intelligence applications.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) AI; artificial intelligence.--The terms ``AI'' and
``artificial intelligence'' have the meaning given the term
``artificial intelligence'' in section 5002 of the National
Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C.
9401).
(2) Alignment.--The term ``alignment'' means a field of AI
safety research that aims to make AI systems behave in line
with human intentions.
(3) Department.--The term ``Department'' means the
Department of Energy, including the NNSA.
(4) Foundation model.--The term ``foundation model'' means
an AI model that--
(A) is trained on broad data;
(B) generally uses self-supervision;
(C) contains at least tens of billions of
parameters; and
(D) is applicable across a wide range of contexts;
and
(E) exhibits, or could be easily modified to
exhibit, high levels of performance at tasks that pose
a serious risk to the security, national economic
security, or national public health or safety of the
United States.
(5) Frontier ai.--
(A) In general.--The term ``frontier AI'' means the
leading edge of AI research that remains unexplored and
is considered to be the most challenging, including
models--
(i) that exceed the capabilities currently
present in the most advanced existing models;
and
(ii) many of which perform a wide variety
of tasks.
(B) Inclusion.--The term ``frontier AI'' includes
AI models with more than 1,000,000,000,000 parameters.
(6) National laboratory.--The term ``National Laboratory''
has the meaning given the term in section 2 of the Energy
Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801).
(7) NNSA.--The term ``NNSA'' means the National Nuclear
Security Administration.
(8) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Energy.
(9) Testbed.--The term ``testbed'' means any platform,
facility, or environment that enables the testing and
evaluation of scientific theories and new technologies,
including hardware, software, or field environments in which
structured frameworks can be implemented to conduct tests to
assess the performance, reliability, safety, and security of a
wide range of items, including prototypes, systems,
applications, AI models, instruments, computational tools,
devices, and other technological innovations.
SEC. 4. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH TO DEPLOYMENT.
(a) Program To Develop and Deploy Frontiers in Artificial
Intelligence for Science, Security, and Technology (FASST).--
(1) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a
centralized AI program to carry out research on the development
and deployment of advanced artificial intelligence capabilities
for the missions of the Department (referred to in this
subsection as the ``program''), consistent with the program
established under section 5501 of the William M. (Mac)
Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2021 (15 U.S.C. 9461).
(2) Program components.--
(A) In general.--The program shall advance and
support diverse activities that include the following
components:
(i) Aggregation, curation, and distribution
of AI training datasets.
(ii) Development and deployment of next-
generation computing platforms and
infrastructure.
(iii) Development and deployment of safe
and trustworthy AI models and systems.
(iv) Tuning and adaptation of AI models and
systems for pressing scientific, energy, and
national security applications.
(B) Aggregation, curation, and distribution of ai
training datasets.--In carrying out the component of
the program described in subparagraph (A)(i), the
Secretary shall develop methods, platforms, protocols,
and other tools required for efficient, safe, and
effective aggregation, generation, curation, and
distribution of AI training datasets, including--
(i) assembling, aggregating, and curating
large-scale training data for advanced AI,
including outputs from research programs of the
Department and other open science data, with
the goal of developing comprehensive scientific
AI training databases and testing and
validation data;
(ii) developing and executing appropriate
data management plan for the ethical,
responsible, and secure use of classified and
unclassified scientific data;
(iii) identifying, curating, and safely
distributing, as appropriate based on the
application--
(I) scientific and experimental
Departmental datasets; and
(II) sponsored research activities
that are needed for the training of
foundation and adapted downstream AI
models; and
(iv) partnering with stakeholders to curate
critical datasets that reside outside the
Department but are determined to be critical to
optimizing the capabilities of open-science AI
foundation models, national security AI
foundation models, and other AI technologies
developed under the program.
(C) Development and deployment of next-generation
computing platforms and infrastructure.--In carrying
out the component of the program described in
subparagraph (A)(ii), the Secretary shall--
(i) develop early-stage AI testbeds to test
and evaluate new software, hardware,
algorithms, and other AI-based technologies and
applications;
(ii) develop and deploy new energy-
efficient AI computing hardware and software
infrastructure necessary for developing and
deploying trustworthy frontier AI systems that
leverage the high-performance computing
capabilities of the Department and the National
Laboratories;
(iii) facilitate the development and
deployment of unclassified and classified high-
performance computing systems and AI platforms
through Department-owned infrastructure data
and computing facilities;
(iv) procure high-performance computing and
other resources necessary for developing,
training, evaluating, and deploying AI
foundation models and AI technologies; and
(v) use appropriate supplier screening
tools available through the Department to
ensure that procurements under clause (iv) are
from trusted suppliers.
(D) Development and deployment of safe and
trustworthy ai models and systems.--In carrying out the
component of the program described in subparagraph
(A)(iii), not later than 3 years after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall--
(i) develop innovative concepts and applied
mathematics, computer science, engineering, and
other science disciplines needed for frontier
AI;
(ii) develop best-in-class AI foundation
models and other AI technologies for open-
science and national security applications;
(iii) research and deploy counter-
adversarial artificial intelligence solutions
to predict, prevent, mitigate, and respond to
threats to critical infrastructure, energy
security, and nuclear nonproliferation, and
biological and chemical threats;
(iv) establish crosscutting research
efforts on AI risks, reliability, safety,
trustworthiness, and alignment, including the
creation of unclassified and classified data
platforms across the Department; and
(v) develop capabilities needed to ensure
the safe and responsible implementation of AI
in the private and public sectors that--
(I) may be readily applied across
Federal agencies and private entities
to ensure that open-science models are
released responsibly, securely, and in
the national interest; and
(II) ensure that classified
national security models are secure,
responsibly managed, and safely
implemented in the national interest.
(E) Tuning and adaptation of ai models and systems
for pressing scientific and national security
applications.--In carrying out the component of the
program described in subparagraph (A)(iv), the
Secretary shall--
(i) use AI foundation models and other AI
technologies to develop a multitude of tuned
and adapted downstream models to solve pressing
scientific, energy, and national security
challenges;
(ii) carry out joint work, including
public-private partnerships, and cooperative
research projects with industry, including end
user companies, hardware systems vendors, and
AI software companies, to advance AI
technologies relevant to the missions of the
Department;
(iii) form partnerships with other Federal
agencies, institutions of higher education, and
international organizations aligned with the
interests of the United States to advance
frontier AI systems development and deployment;
and
(iv) increase research experiences and
workforce development, including training for
undergraduate and graduate students in frontier
AI for science, energy, and national security.
(3) Strategic plan.--In carrying out the program, the
Secretary shall develop a strategic plan with specific short-
term and long-term goals and resource needs to advance
applications in AI for science, energy, and national security
to support the missions of the Department, consistent with--
(A) the 2023 National Laboratory workshop report
entitled ``Advanced Research Directions on AI for
Science, Energy, and Security''; and
(B) the 2024 National Laboratory workshop report
entitled ``AI for Energy''.
(b) AI Research and Development Centers.--
(1) In general.--As part of the program established under
subsection (a), the Secretary shall select, on a competitive,
merit-reviewed basis, National Laboratories to establish and
operate not fewer than 8 multidisciplinary AI Research and
Development Centers (referred to in this subsection as
``Centers'')--
(A) to accelerate the safe and trustworthy
deployment of AI for science, energy, and national
security missions;
(B) to demonstrate the use of AI in addressing key
challenge problems of national interest in science,
energy, and national security; and
(C) to maintain the competitive advantage of the
United States in AI.
(2) Focus.--Each Center shall bring together diverse teams
from National Laboratories, academia, and industry to
collaboratively and concurrently deploy hardware, software,
numerical methods, data, algorithms, and applications for AI
and ensure that the frontier AI research of the Department is
well-suited for key Department missions, including by using
existing and emerging computing systems to the maximum extent
practicable.
(3) Administration.--
(A) National laboratory.--Each Center shall be
established as part of a National Laboratory.
(B) Application.--To be eligible for selection to
establish and operate a Center under paragraph (1), a
National Laboratory shall submit to the Secretary an
application at such time, in such manner, and
containing such information as the Secretary may
require.
(C) Director.--Each Center shall be headed by a
Director, who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of
the Center and an employee of the National Laboratory
described in subparagraph (A), and responsible for--
(i) successful execution of the goals of
the Center; and
(ii) coordinating with other Centers.
(D) Technical roadmap.--In support of the strategic
plan developed under subsection (a)(3), each Center