National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, Section 1533 ("Artificial intelligence model assessment and oversight")

• 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

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
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of AI risk domains, with primary focus on governance structures (6.5) and system safety/robustness (7.3). It addresses governance failure risks through establishment of oversight mechanisms and assessment frameworks. Coverage is concentrated in organizational governance and system reliability domains, with no substantive coverage of discrimination, privacy, misinformation, malicious use, human-computer interaction, or socioeconomic risks.

Sector coverage

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

• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document exclusively governs AI use within the National Security sector, specifically within the Department of Defense and its military operations. It does not regulate AI use in any 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 2026. It contains mandatory obligations with specific deadlines and enforcement through congressional oversight mechanisms.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is Section 1533 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, which is federal legislation enacted by the United States Congress.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The legislation applies to the Department of Defense and its components, which both develop and deploy AI systems. The DOD components are required to participate in the Cross-Functional Team and comply with the assessment framework for AI models they develop or procure.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Secretary of Defense has primary enforcement authority to establish the Cross-Functional Team, designate functional leads, and ensure compliance with deadlines. The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer leads the Cross-Functional Team. Congressional defense committees provide oversight through mandatory briefings.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: Congressional defense committees receive mandatory briefings on implementation progress. The Cross-Functional Team monitors AI model assessments during its operational period (2026-2030). A successor element will continue monitoring activities after 2030 with annual reporting requirements.

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 comprehensively covers all AI lifecycle stages from planning through operational monitoring. It establishes governance structures spanning the entire lifecycle, with particular emphasis on assessment, testing, validation, deployment approval processes, and ongoing monitoring of AI models within the Department of Defense.

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 and repeatedly references 'artificial intelligence models' and 'artificial intelligence systems' throughout. It defines 'major artificial intelligence system' in detail but does not mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or specific compute thresholds. The focus is on AI models and systems broadly within DOD operations.