[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 5239 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 5239
To require the Secretary of Defense to manage risks relating to
military use of artificial intelligence, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 25, 2024
Mr. Welch introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to manage risks relating to
military use of artificial intelligence, 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 ``Artificial Intelligence Weapon
Accountability and Risk Evaluation Act of 2024'' or the ``AWARE Act of
2024''.
SEC. 2. MANAGING RISKS RELATING TO MILITARY USE OF ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE.
(a) Ledger of Use and Deployment.--
(1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of
the enactment of this Act the Secretary of Defense shall
commence creating, and not later than three years after the
date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary shall complete
creating, a ledger of all uses by the Department of Defense of
covered systems.
(2) Requirements.--The Secretary shall ensure that the
ledger created pursuant to paragraph (1)--
(A) is a structured, indexed database; and
(B) maintained and updated on a regular basis to
ensure that the ledger is accurate.
(b) Risk Assessment Process.--
(1) In general.--Not later than three years after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a
risk assessment process that holistically evaluates each unique
implementation by the Department of a covered system included
in the ledger required by subsection (a).
(2) Elements.--
(A) In general.--The process required by paragraph
(1) shall, at a minimum, cover matters relating to the
following:
(i) Dependability.
(ii) Cybersecurity.
(iii) Privacy.
(iv) Bias.
(v) Bias towards escalation.
(vi) Deployment span.
(vii) Risk of civilian harm.
(B) Bias towards escalation.--For purposes of
subparagraph (A)(v), the process shall cover the intent
of the system and assess for any bias relating to
whether the technology ever escalates or deescalates
conflict situations.
(C) Deployment span.--For purposes of subparagraph
(A)(vi), the process shall address changes in risk
levels based on whether covered systems are deployed
singularly or in clusters or swarms.
(3) Annual assessments.--The Secretary shall ensure that
the process required by paragraph (1) requires reevaluation of
each covered system included in the ledger required by
subsection (a)--
(A) not less frequently than annually; and
(B) whenever--
(i) the underlying foundation artificial
intelligence model receives an update;
(ii) the Department procures any covered
system that has not previously been evaluated
by the process; and
(iii) a new weapons review of a covered
system is conducted by the Department.
(c) Annotations Regarding Exports.--The Secretary shall annotate in
the ledger required by subsection (a) when--
(1) a covered system developed or owned by the Department
is shared with a foreign country, exported to a foreign
country, or used by any foreign person or government; and
(2) such sharing, exporting, or use presents additional
risk covered by the risk assessment process required by
subsection (b).
(d) Progress Reports to Congress.--Not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently once each
year thereafter until the date that is three years after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a
report on the progress of the Secretary in carrying out this Act.
(e) Annual Submissions to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than three years after the date
of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently than once
each year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress an
annual submission that includes the following:
(A) The ledger required by subsection (a).
(B) An annual report on the findings of the
Secretary with respect to the risk assessments
conducted, in the year covered by the annual
submission, pursuant to the risk assessment process
established under subsection (b).
(C) The annotations made under subsection (c)
during the year covered by the annual submission.
(2) Form.--Each submission under paragraph (1) shall be, to
the fullest extent possible, in unclassified form, but may
include a classified annex to the degree the Secretary
considers necessary.
(3) Public availability.--The Secretary shall make
available to the public the unclassified portion of each annual
submission under paragraph (1).
(f) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the ledger
created pursuant to subsection (a)(1) will reflect strong and
continuing commitment of the Department of Defense to being a
transparent global leader in establishing responsible policies
regarding military uses of artificial intelligence-enabled weapons,
targeting, and decision support systems.
(g) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to reduce any existing privacy, safety, or security
protections or guardrails in effect before the date of the enactment of
this Act.
(h) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning
given such term in section 5002 of the National Artificial
Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).
(2) The term ``covered system'' includes the following
systems that are enabled by artificial intelligence:
(A) A weapon system.
(B) A targeting system.
(C) A decision support system that aids a system
described in subparagraph (A) or (B).
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