James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Section 162 ("Assessment and strategy for fielding capabilities to counter threats posed by unmanned aerial system swarms")

• 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: 2022-12-23

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
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities

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

• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure
• AI pursuing its own goals
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Multi-agent risks

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 5-6 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors (4.2), AI system security (2.2), dangerous capabilities (7.2), competitive dynamics (6.4), and governance failure (6.5). Coverage is concentrated in security, weapons development, and AI safety domains related to autonomous military systems.

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

This document primarily governs the National Security sector, as it directs the Department of Defense to assess threats from unmanned aerial system swarms and develop counter-capabilities. It also has minimal coverage of Scientific Research and Development Services through requirements for technology development and testing.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative provision enacted by the United States Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, with mandatory obligations on the Secretary of Defense to conduct assessments, develop strategies, and report to Congress.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 162 of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which is enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Department of Defense; Armed Forces
• Summary: The document directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct assessments and develop strategies, making the Department of Defense and its components the primary targets of this governance measure.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; United States Congress
• Summary: The congressional defense committees serve as the enforcement mechanism through mandatory reporting requirements and congressional oversight authority.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; United States Congress
• Summary: The congressional defense committees monitor implementation through the required report on assessment findings and strategy development, providing oversight of the Department of Defense's compliance.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

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

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily covers the Plan and Design stage through requirements for strategy development and capability planning, the Verify and Validate stage through assessment and testing requirements, the Deploy stage through fielding capabilities, and the Operate and Monitor stage through ongoing threat assessment and effectiveness evaluation of counter-UAS capabilities.

Technical Scope

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

• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions autonomous intelligence and machine learning as swarming technologies with national security implications. It focuses on unmanned aerial systems with autonomous and swarm capabilities but does not use standard AI terminology like AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, or compute thresholds. The focus is on military autonomous systems rather than general AI development.