Department of Energy Artificial Intelligence Act of 2024

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Governance failure
• Environmental harm
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of risk domains, with limited focus on AI system security (2.2), governance failure (6.5), and lack of robustness (7.3). The document primarily focuses on research, development, and deployment of AI systems rather than addressing specific risks and harms. Most risk subdomains are not mentioned.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Information
• Educational Services
• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs AI research and development within the Scientific Research and Development Services sector (Department of Energy and National Laboratories) and the Public Administration sector (federal government operations). It also addresses AI applications in the Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector through energy infrastructure and data center provisions.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress with mandatory language, specific appropriations, and legal obligations for the Department of Energy to carry out AI research programs.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
• Summary: The document is a Congressional bill enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, establishing a Department of Energy AI research program.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Infrastructure_Provider
• Entities: Department of Energy; National Laboratories; institutions of higher education; Federal research agencies; State research agencies; nonprofit research organizations; private sector entities; energy utilities; data center developers and operators; hardware systems vendors; artificial intelligence developers
• Summary: The Act targets the Department of Energy to carry out AI research programs and provides funding to eligible entities including National Laboratories, universities, private companies, and various AI ecosystem participants.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Department of Energy; Secretary of Energy
• Summary: The Secretary of Energy is designated as the primary authority responsible for implementing and overseeing the AI research program, with mandatory obligations to carry out specified activities.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives; Committee of Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate
• Summary: Congress monitors implementation through required reports and strategic plan submissions to specific Congressional committees.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document comprehensively covers all AI lifecycle stages from planning through operational monitoring. It emphasizes research and development activities (Plan and Design, Build and Use Model), data management (Collect and Process Data), testing and validation (Verify and Validate), deployment infrastructure, and ongoing monitoring of AI systems.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI systems and AI models throughout. It does not specifically define or mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, or generative AI. The document does not reference compute thresholds or open-weight/open-source models. The focus is on broad AI research and development across scientific, energy, and national security applications.