Validation and Evaluation for Trustworthy (VET) Artificial Intelligence Act

• 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

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

• Governance failure
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

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

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Overreliance and unsafe use

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal to good coverage of approximately 6-8 subdomains, with primary focus on AI system safety and failures (7.3, 7.4), governance structures (6.5), privacy concerns (2.1), discrimination risks (1.1, 1.3), and security vulnerabilities (2.2). Coverage is concentrated in technical assurance, testing, and validation domains rather than malicious use or socioeconomic impacts.

Sector coverage

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

• Professional & Technical Services
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This is a cross-sectoral framework that does not govern specific economic sectors. Instead, it establishes voluntary guidelines for AI assurance applicable to any developer or deployer of AI systems across all sectors. The Advisory Committee includes representatives from multiple sectors (healthcare, public safety, etc.) but this reflects stakeholder input rather than sector-specific regulation.

Legislative Status

Soft Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a legislative act that establishes voluntary guidelines and specifications for AI assurance. While it is enacted by Congress (hard law authority), the substantive obligations it creates are explicitly voluntary in nature, with no mandatory compliance requirements or enforcement mechanisms for AI developers/deployers.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is titled as an Act of Congress and follows standard legislative format. It is proposed and enacted by the U.S. Congress as federal legislation.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The Act defines and targets both 'developers' (entities that build, design, code, produce, train, or own AI systems) and 'deployers' (entities that operate AI systems). The voluntary guidelines are designed for these entities to conduct internal and external assurances.

Enforcer

• Summary: The Act establishes voluntary guidelines with no enforcement mechanisms for AI developers or deployers. The only mandatory obligations are on government agencies (NIST, Department of Commerce) to develop guidelines and conduct studies, not to enforce compliance by private entities.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: NIST is tasked with developing and periodically updating voluntary guidelines. The Secretary of Commerce must conduct a study to evaluate the capabilities of entities conducting AI assurances. An Advisory Committee is established to review and make recommendations.

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
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document comprehensively covers the Verify and Validate stage through its focus on testing, evaluation, validation, and verification of AI systems. It also addresses Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages through guidance on assurance frequency, disclosure of results, and corrective actions. The Plan and Design stage receives minimal coverage through references to risk management and governance processes.

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 'artificial intelligence systems' throughout and provides a formal definition referencing existing federal AI legislation. It does not specifically mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on AI systems broadly defined without distinguishing between specific AI types or capabilities.