National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 1534 ("Digital sandbox environments for artificial intelligence")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: NDAA provisions;U.S. federal laws;FY2026 NDAA
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2025-12-18

Risk subdomain coverage

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

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

This document has minimal risk domain coverage, primarily addressing governance structures (6.5) and competitive dynamics (6.4) implicitly through its focus on accelerating AI adoption and coordination. The document is procedural in nature, establishing a task force rather than directly addressing AI risks or harms.

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.

• Educational Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document exclusively governs the National Security sector, specifically establishing requirements for AI sandbox environments within the Department of Defense. 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, with mandatory requirements for the Secretary of Defense to establish a task force by a specific deadline.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is Section 1534 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which is enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Department of Defense; Secretary of Defense; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer; military departments; combatant commands; Joint Staff
• Summary: The document applies to the Department of Defense and its components, requiring the Secretary of Defense to establish a task force composed of various DoD officials and military department representatives.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; congressional defense committees; Secretary of Defense
• Summary: Congressional defense committees provide oversight through mandatory briefings, and the Secretary of Defense has authority to implement and enforce the task force requirements within the Department of Defense.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: congressional defense committees; Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer
• Summary: Congressional defense committees monitor implementation through required briefings, and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer chairs the task force and oversees its functions.

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 Build and Use Model, Deploy, and Operate and Monitor stages. It addresses sandbox environments for building, training, evaluating, and deploying AI models, as well as ongoing experimentation and familiarization activities.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• AI Systems

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI models, AI capabilities, and AI tools. It does not specifically reference frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on sandbox environments for experimentation rather than specific AI model categories.