William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, Division A, Title II, Section 227 ("Limitation on contract awards for certain unmanned vessels")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: NDAA provisions;U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2021-01-01

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

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

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of AI risk domains, with limited focus on AI system security (2.2), governance failure (6.5), and system safety/robustness (7.3). The document primarily addresses procurement and testing requirements for unmanned naval vessels rather than AI-specific risks. Coverage is concentrated in technical validation and governance oversight mechanisms.

Sector coverage

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

• National Security

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

• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document exclusively governs the National Security sector, specifically the U.S. Navy's procurement and deployment of unmanned naval vessels. It establishes oversight requirements for research, development, testing, and evaluation of autonomous military vessels with potential offensive weapon capabilities.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute enacted by the United States Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. It contains mandatory obligations with enforcement mechanisms through congressional oversight and budget control.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: This section is part of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which was enacted by the United States Congress as federal legislation.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The document explicitly targets the Secretary of the Navy and Department of Defense, imposing limitations and requirements on their procurement and deployment of unmanned vessels. The Senior Technical Authority is also subject to specific responsibilities.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The congressional defense committees enforce compliance through their oversight authority and control over the Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, Navy account. The statute prohibits certain actions until reports and certifications are submitted to these committees.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The congressional defense committees monitor compliance through mandatory reporting requirements. The Senior Technical Authority monitors technical aspects through independent technical risk assessments and findings/recommendations on vessel subsystems.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Plan and Design
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily covers the Plan and Design, Verify and Validate, and Deploy stages of the AI lifecycle for unmanned naval vessels. It mandates technical risk assessments, performance demonstrations, and analysis of alternatives before procurement and deployment. The document also addresses operational monitoring through requirements for autonomous navigation and contact management systems.

Technical Scope

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

No technical scope terms identified.

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly addresses unmanned vessels and autonomous systems, specifically large unmanned surface vessels (LUSV) and medium unmanned surface vehicles (MUSV). It references autonomous vessel navigation and control systems as critical subsystems. However, it does not explicitly mention AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, or compute thresholds in AI-specific terminology.