Block Nuclear Launch by Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Act of 2023

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

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

• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• AI pursuing its own goals
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities

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

• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure
• Environmental harm
• Lack of capability or robustness

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 and weapons development (4.2), AI system safety and goal misalignment (7.1), dangerous capabilities (7.2), lack of robustness (7.3), governance failure (6.5), and competitive dynamics (6.4). Coverage is concentrated in AI safety, weapons systems, and governance domains.

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 the National Security sector, specifically addressing the use of autonomous weapons systems in nuclear weapons operations within the U.S. military and defense establishment. No other economic sectors are regulated by this legislation.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress that prohibits the use of federal funds for autonomous nuclear weapons systems, with mandatory language and enforcement through budget restrictions.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is explicitly presented as a bill to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, indicating Congress as the proposing body.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The prohibition applies to any use of federal funds to operate autonomous weapons systems for nuclear weapons, which would primarily target the Department of Defense and military entities that develop or deploy such systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: Enforcement is achieved through Congressional control of federal appropriations - the prohibition prevents any federal funds from being obligated or expended for the prohibited activities, which is enforced through the budget process.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: While not explicitly stated, Congressional oversight of federal appropriations and Department of Defense activities would provide the monitoring mechanism to ensure compliance with the prohibition.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily focuses on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, specifically prohibiting the deployment and operational use of autonomous weapons systems for nuclear weapons without meaningful human control. It does not substantially address earlier stages like planning, data collection, or model building.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions autonomous weapons systems and artificial intelligence in the context of nuclear weapons. It does not mention AI models, AI systems in general terms, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds. The focus is specifically on autonomous weapons systems as defined by DoD Directive 3000.09.