National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, Title XV, Subtitle E ("Artificial Intelligence")

• 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: 2023-12-22

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
• Governance failure
• AI pursuing its own goals
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• 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
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Competitive dynamics
• Multi-agent risks

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 8-10 subdomains, with strong focus on AI system security (2.2), malicious actors and adversarial AI (4.1, 4.2), competitive dynamics (6.4), governance structures (6.5), and AI safety failures (7.1, 7.2, 7.3). Coverage is concentrated in security, adversarial threats, and AI system robustness domains.

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
• Educational Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document exclusively governs AI use within the National Security sector, specifically the Department of Defense and its military operations. It does not regulate AI use in civilian economic sectors.

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 2024, with mandatory obligations on the Secretary of Defense and other DoD officials, enforceable through administrative and congressional oversight mechanisms.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: This is a subtitle of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which is federal legislation enacted by the United States Congress. The document represents congressional authority directing the Department of Defense.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Entities: Department of Defense; Secretary of Defense; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer; Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Secretaries of the military departments; commanders of combatant commands; commercial entities that provide artificial intelligence algorithms; participants in prize competition (federally funded research and development centers, entities within the private sector, entities within the defense industrial base, institutions of higher education, Federal departments and agencies)
• Summary: The document primarily targets Department of Defense entities and officials who must implement AI governance measures. It also applies to commercial AI developers and other entities participating in DoD AI programs, bug bounties, and prize competitions.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Secretary of Defense; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer; Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; congressional defense committees
• Summary: The Secretary of Defense and designated DoD officials have primary enforcement authority for implementing the requirements. Congressional defense committees exercise oversight through mandatory briefings and reports.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer; Secretary of Defense
• Summary: Congressional defense committees receive mandatory briefings and reports to monitor implementation. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer and Secretary of Defense have internal monitoring responsibilities for AI systems compliance and performance.

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 covers multiple AI lifecycle stages with primary focus on Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages. It addresses planning through strategy development, model building through bug bounty programs and competitions, verification through testing frameworks, deployment through integration guidance, and ongoing monitoring through accountability metrics and assessment procedures.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• Foundation Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI models, AI systems, and foundational AI models. It addresses generative AI extensively through detection, watermarking, and strategic planning requirements. It does not explicitly mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, predictive AI, or compute thresholds. Open-weight models are not explicitly mentioned.