Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act, Title IV, Section 10402 ("National engineering biology research and development initiative")

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Enacted
• Most recent activity date: 2022-08-09

Risk subdomain coverage

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

• Compromise of privacy
• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Cyberattacks, weapon development or use
• Competitive dynamics
• Governance failure
• Environmental harm
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of risk domains, with brief mentions of safety and security (2.2), ethical issues (7.4), and governance structures (6.5). Coverage is primarily focused on research support and development rather than specific AI risk mitigation. Most risk subdomains receive no coverage as this is a research funding and coordination initiative rather than a risk-focused regulatory document.

Sector coverage

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

• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Educational Services
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

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

• Agriculture, Mining, Construction & Manufacturing
• Professional & Technical Services
• National Security

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs Scientific Research and Development Services through its establishment of a national engineering biology research initiative. It also has significant coverage of Educational Services through training and workforce development provisions, and Information sector through database and computational tool development. The initiative spans multiple sectors through its research applications but is fundamentally a research and development governance framework.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding legislative act passed by the United States Congress with mandatory language directing the President and Office of Science and Technology Policy to implement specific programs and activities.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is a Congressional act (Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act, Title IV, Section 10402) proposed and enacted by the United States Congress as the legislative authority.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Developer
• Entities: Office of Science and Technology Policy; Federal agencies participating in the Initiative; institutions of higher education; nonprofit research institutions; Small Business Innovation Research Program participants; Small Business Technology Transfer Program participants; researchers; graduate students; postdoctoral fellows; startup companies
• Summary: The initiative targets federal agencies that must implement the program, as well as researchers, educational institutions, and private sector entities (including small businesses and startups) that will receive funding and participate in engineering biology research and development activities.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Office of Science and Technology Policy; Federal agencies participating in the Initiative
• Summary: The Office of Science and Technology Policy, acting under Presidential authority, is designated to implement and oversee the Initiative, with participating federal agencies responsible for carrying out specific activities and ensuring compliance with federal law.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Office of Science and Technology Policy; Federal agencies participating in the Initiative
• Summary: The Office of Science and Technology Policy and participating federal agencies are responsible for monitoring implementation through interagency coordination, public input mechanisms, and assessment activities including inventory and assessment of federal databases.

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 primarily covers the Plan and Design stage through research planning and initiative development, the Build and Use Model stage through AI tool development for database research, and the Operate and Monitor stage through ongoing research support and public engagement mechanisms. It focuses on enabling AI research infrastructure rather than deploying specific AI systems.

Technical Scope

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

• Open Weight / Open Source
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI tools in the context of computational tools for engineering biology research. It focuses on artificial intelligence as an enabling technology for database research and innovation in engineering biology, rather than regulating AI systems broadly. There is no mention of frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds.