Department of Energy AI 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.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure
• AI pursuing its own goals
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• Lack of capability or robustness

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

• Compromise of privacy
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Environmental harm

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 6-8 subdomains, with strong focus on AI system security (2.2), malicious actors and weapons development (4.2), competitive dynamics (6.4), governance structures (6.5), AI safety failures and goal misalignment (7.1), dangerous capabilities (7.2), and lack of robustness (7.3). Coverage is concentrated in security, national security risks, and AI safety domains relevant to Department of Energy missions.

Sector coverage

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

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)
• National Security

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

• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This Act primarily governs AI use within the Department of Energy's operations, which spans Scientific Research and Development Services, Information (computing infrastructure), and Public Administration. It also has regulatory implications for the energy sector through permitting improvements and grid interconnection standards, affecting Trade, Transportation and Utilities.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress with mandatory language, specific appropriations, enforcement mechanisms, and legal obligations on the Department of Energy and other federal agencies.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: This is an Act of Congress, as indicated by the legislative format and structure. Congress is the proposing authority for this federal legislation.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Infrastructure_Provider
• Entities: Department of Energy; National Laboratories; National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; private companies; nonprofit organizations; institutions of higher education
• Summary: The Act primarily targets the Department of Energy and its National Laboratories to develop AI capabilities. It also applies to private entities through partnerships and to other federal agencies through coordination requirements.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Department of Energy; Secretary of Energy; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Congress
• Summary: The Secretary of Energy has primary enforcement authority for implementing the programs. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rulemaking authority. Congress maintains oversight through required annual reporting.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Congress; Department of Energy; Office of Critical and Emerging Technology
• Summary: Congress monitors implementation through mandatory annual reports. The Department of Energy monitors through the newly established Office of Critical and Emerging Technology and through coordination mechanisms across Centers.

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 the complete development pipeline including data collection, model building, validation, deployment, and ongoing monitoring, with particular focus on safe deployment and continuous evaluation of AI systems for science, energy, and national security applications.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• Foundation Models
• Frontier AI
• AI Systems
• Compute Threshold

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and covers AI models, AI systems, foundation models, and frontier AI with specific technical definitions. It establishes compute thresholds for frontier AI (models with more than 1 trillion parameters). The document does not explicitly mention general purpose AI, task-specific AI, generative AI, predictive AI, or open-weight models, though these may be implicitly covered under broader AI categories.