Artificial Intelligence and Biosecurity Risk Assessment Act

• 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 possessing dangerous capabilities

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

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Governance failure

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 4-5 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors using AI for weapons development (4.2), AI system security vulnerabilities (2.2), governance failure (6.5), and dangerous AI capabilities (7.2). Coverage is concentrated in security, misuse prevention, and AI safety domains related to biosecurity threats.

Sector coverage

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

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)
• National Security

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

• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This Act primarily governs Public Administration (specifically national security and public health agencies) by creating obligations for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. It also has implications for Scientific Research and Development Services through its focus on monitoring AI-enabled biological research risks.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act from the United States Congress that amends the Public Health Service Act with mandatory requirements for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to conduct risk assessments and implement strategic initiatives.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress; Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
• Summary: The document is explicitly enacted by Congress, as stated in the enacting clause, making Congress the proposer of this legislation.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
• Summary: The Act specifically targets and creates obligations for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, who must conduct risk assessments and implement strategic initiatives.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Department of Health and Human Services (implied)
• Summary: The Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response is responsible for implementing and enforcing the requirements, including conducting assessments and including findings in the National Health Security Strategy.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
• Summary: The Assistant Secretary is explicitly tasked with regularly monitoring and researching potential biological catastrophic risks related to AI advancements.

AI Lifecycle Stages

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

• Build and Use Model
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document focuses primarily on the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages, as it addresses the use of AI models (particularly open-source models and large language models) for developing biological threats and requires ongoing monitoring of these risks. There is minimal coverage of earlier lifecycle stages.

Technical Scope

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

• AI Models
• Open Weight / Open Source

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI models, specifically referencing 'open-source artificial intelligence models and large language models'. It does not explicitly define or mention AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, generative AI, predictive AI, or compute thresholds.