National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, Section 7507 ("Programs for next-generation microelectronics in support of 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

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

• Competitive dynamics
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities
• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

This document has minimal risk domain coverage, primarily addressing competitive dynamics (6.4) through its focus on advancing U.S. microelectronics capabilities for AI. It implicitly touches on AI system safety (7.2, 7.3) through research into safety controls for generative AI. The document is primarily focused on research and development rather than risk mitigation.

Sector coverage

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

• Scientific Research & Development Services
• National Security

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

• Information
• Educational Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the National Security sector through its establishment of an intelligence community research program. It also has implications for Scientific Research and Development Services through its focus on advancing microelectronics research, and Information sector through development of next-generation computing and AI technologies.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute enacted by the U.S. Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, with mandatory language requiring the Director of National Intelligence to establish a program and fulfill specific obligations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 7507 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which is enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Infrastructure_Provider
• Entities: Director of National Intelligence; Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity; academic institutions; private industry
• Summary: The program targets the Director of National Intelligence and IARPA to conduct research, with collaboration from academic institutions and private industry in microelectronics and AI development.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional intelligence committees; Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives
• Summary: Congressional committees enforce compliance through oversight, appropriations control, and mandatory briefing requirements.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional intelligence committees; Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives
• Summary: The same congressional committees that enforce also monitor through regular briefings on progress, achievements, outcomes, collaborations, and future research priorities.

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

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily covers the Plan and Design stage through its focus on establishing a research program for next-generation microelectronics. It also addresses Build and Use Model through research into algorithms, architectures, and AI/ML advancement. The document does not substantially cover data collection, verification/validation, deployment, or operational monitoring stages.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative AI. It focuses on next-generation computing infrastructure and algorithms to enable AI advancement. There is no mention of frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, predictive AI, open-weight models, or specific compute thresholds.