Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026

(a) Short title.— This Act may be cited as the “Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026”.

(b) Table of contents.— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

It is the sense of Congress that policies affecting artificial intelligence should maximize the potential, development, and use of artificial intelligence to benefit all private and public stakeholders.

In this title:

(1) Artificial intelligence.— The term artificial intelligence has the meaning given such term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).

(2) Artificial intelligence model.— The term artificial intelligence model means a component of an artificial intelligence system that is—

(A) derived using mathematical, computational, statistical, or machine-learning techniques; and

(B) used as part of an artificial intelligence system to produce outputs from a given set of inputs.

(3) Artificial intelligence system.— The term artificial intelligence system means an engineered or machine-based system that—

(A) can, for a given set of objectives, generate outputs such as predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments; and

(B) is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy.

(4) Critical infrastructure.— The term critical infrastructure has the meaning given such term in section 1016(e) of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e)).

(5) Federal laboratory.— The term Federal laboratory has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703).

(6) Foundation model.— The term foundation model means an artificial intelligence model trained on broad data at scale and is adaptable to a wide range of downstream tasks.

(7) National Laboratory.— The term National Laboratory has the meaning given such term in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15801).

(8) Testbed.— The term testbed means a facility or mechanism, virtual or otherwise, equipped for conducting rigorous, transparent, and replicable testing of tools and technologies, including artificial intelligence systems, to help evaluate the functionality, trustworthiness, usability, and performance of those tools or technologies.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 271 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 22A (15 U.S.C. 278h–1) the following:

“22B. Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation.—

(a) Definitions.— In this section:

(1) Agency.— The term agency has the meaning given the term “Executive agency” in section 105 of title 5, United States Code.

(2) Artificial intelligence.— The term artificial intelligence has the meaning given such term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401).

(3) Artificial intelligence blue-teaming.— The term artificial intelligence blue-teaming means an effort to conduct operational vulnerability evaluations and provide mitigation techniques to entities who have a need for an independent technical review of the security posture of an artificial intelligence system.

(4) Artificial intelligence red-teaming.— The term artificial intelligence red-teaming means structured adversarial testing efforts of an artificial intelligence system.

(5) Federal laboratory.— The term Federal laboratory has the meaning given such term in section 4 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3703).

(6) Foundation model.— The term foundation model means an artificial intelligence model trained on broad data at scale and is adaptable to a wide range of downstream tasks.

(7) Synthetic content.— The term synthetic content means information, such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that has been significantly modified or generated by algorithms, including by an artificial intelligence system.

(8) Testbed.— The term testbed means a facility or mechanism, virtual or otherwise, equipped for conducting rigorous, transparent, and replicable testing of tools and technologies, including artificial intelligence systems, to help evaluate the functionality, trustworthiness, usability, and performance of those tools or technologies.

(9) Watermarking.— The term watermarking means the act of embedding provenance and authenticity information that is intended to be difficult to remove, into outputs generated by artificial intelligence systems or in original content, including outputs such as text, images, audio, videos, software code, or any other digital content or data, for the purposes of verifying and maintaining the authenticity, integrity, and reliability of the output or the identity or characteristics of its provenance, modifications, or conveyance.

(b) Establishment of Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation.—

(1) In general.— Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, the Director shall establish a center on artificial intelligence within the Institute.

(2) Designation.— The center established pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be known as the “Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation” (in this section the “Center”).

(3) Mission.— The mission of the Center is to assist the private sector and agencies in developing voluntary best practices for the robust assessment of artificial intelligence systems, which may be contributed to or inform the work on such practices in standards development organizations.

(c) Functions.—

(1) In general.— The functions of the Center, which the Center shall carry out in coordination with the laboratories of the Institute, include the following:

(A) Using publicly available or voluntarily provided information, assessing artificial intelligence systems and developing guidelines and best practices to measure and improve the secure development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence technology.

(B) Supporting artificial intelligence red-teaming, sharing best practices, and coordinating on building testbeds and test environments with allies and international partners of the United States.

(C) Developing and publishing physical and cybersecurity tools, methodologies, best practices, voluntary guidelines, and other supporting information to assist persons who maintain systems used to create or train artificial intelligence models with discovering and mitigating vulnerabilities and attacks, including manipulation through data poisoning, including those that may be exploited by foreign adversaries.

(D) Establishing artificial intelligence blue-teaming capabilities to support mitigation approaches and partnering with industry to address the reliability of artificial intelligence systems.

(E) Developing tools, methodologies, best practices, and voluntary guidelines for detecting synthetic content, authenticating content and tracking of the provenance of content, labeling original and synthetic content, such as by watermarking, and evaluating software and systems relating to detection and labeling of synthetic content.

(F) Coordinating or developing metrics and methodologies for testing artificial intelligence systems, including the following:

(i) Cataloging existing artificial intelligence metrics and evaluation methodologies used in industry and academia.

(ii) Testing the efficacy of existing metrics and evaluations.

(iii) Documenting tools that assess reliability, accuracy, and robustness.

(G) Coordinating with counterpart international institutions, partners, and allies to support global interoperability in the development of research and testing of standards relating to artificial intelligence.

(H) Producing resources for Federal agencies to conduct their own evaluations of artificial intelligence systems to best fulfill their missions.

(I) Convening meetings on a semiannual basis with Federal agencies and the private sector—

(i) to share information and best practices on building artificial intelligence evaluations; and

(ii) to accelerate the development and adoption of national standards for artificial intelligence systems in sectors including, biotechnology, agriculture, and health care.

(J) Examining safeguards and best practices to secure artificial intelligence systems from cyber attacks.

(K) Examining safeguards and best practices to protect against unintended use of artificial intelligence for the purpose of developing chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and energy-security threats or hazards.

(L) Providing, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency, a toolkit for best practices in anticipating, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents involving artificial intelligence systems. Such toolkit may include guidance on remediating and responding to known artificial intelligence-specific vulnerabilities.

(M) Developing, and curating, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, a list of high-priority occupations for training for the advancement and deployment of artificial intelligence.

(N) Developing best practices on minimum data quality standards for the use of biological, material science, chemical, physical, and other scientific areas in artificial intelligence model training.

(O) Examining, in consultation with the heads of other relevant Federal agencies, the vulnerabilities in the supply chain of hardware, including semiconductors and microelectronics, that are critical to enabling the development and deployment of artificial intelligence.

(P) Examining ways in which artificial intelligence may be used by the Federal Government in combating fraud and other unfair or deceptive practices.

(Q) Identify proven, scalable, and interoperable techniques and metrics to promote the development of artificial intelligence.

(d) Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation Consortium.—

(1) Establishment.—

(A) In general.— Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, the Director shall establish a consortium of stakeholders from academic or research communities, Federal laboratories, private industry, including companies of all sizes with different roles in the use of artificial intelligence systems, including developers, deployers, evaluators, users, and civil society with expertise in matters relating to artificial intelligence to support the Center in carrying out the functions set forth under subsection (c).

(B) Designation.— The consortium established pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall be known as the “Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation Consortium”.

(2) Consultation.— The Director shall consult with the consortium established under this subsection not less frequently than quarterly.

(3) Annual reports to Congress.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026 and not less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Director shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report summarizing the contributions of the members of the consortium established under this subsection in support the efforts of the Center.

(e) Voluntary artificial intelligence testing standards.— In carrying out the functions under subsection (c), the Director shall support and contribute to the development of voluntary, consensus-based technical standards for testing artificial intelligence system components, including by addressing, as the Director considers appropriate, the following:

(1) Physical infrastructure for training or developing artificial intelligence models and systems, including cloud infrastructure.

(2) Physical infrastructure for operating artificial intelligence systems, including cloud infrastructure.

(3) Data for training artificial intelligence models.

(4) Data for evaluating the functionality and trustworthiness of trained artificial intelligence models and systems.

(5) Trained or partially trained artificial intelligence models and any resulting software systems or products.

(6) Human-in-the-loop testing of artificial intelligence models and systems.

(f) Matters relating to disclosure and access.—

(1) FOIA exemption.— Any confidential content, as deemed confidential by the contributing private sector person, shall be exempt from public disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5, United States Code.

(2) Limitation on access to content.— Access to a contributing private sector person’s voluntarily provided confidential content, as deemed confidential by the contributing private sector person shall be limited to the private sector person and the Center.

(3) Aggregated information.— The Director may make aggregated, deidentified information available to contributing companies, the public, and other agencies, as the Director considers appropriate, in support of the purposes of this section.

(g) Rule of construction.— Nothing in this section shall be construed to provide the Director any enforcement authority that was not in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026.

(h) Prohibition on access to resources for entities under control of certain foreign governments.—

(1) Definitions.— In this subsection:

(A) Covered nation.— The term covered nation has the meaning given that term in section 4872 of title 10, United States Code.

(B) Ownership, control, or influence of the government of a covered nation.— The term ownership, control, or influence of the government of a covered nation, with respect to an entity, means the government of a covered nation—

(i) has the power to direct or decide matters affecting the entity's management or operations in a manner that could—

(I) result in unauthorized access to classified information; or

(II) adversely affect performance of a contract or agreement requiring access to classified information; and

(ii) exercises that power—

(I) directly or indirectly;

(II) through ownership of the entity's securities, by contractual arrangements, or other similar means;

(III) by the ability to control or influence the election or appointment of one or more members to the entity's governing board (such as the board of directors, board of managers, or board of trustees) or its equivalent; or

(IV) prospectively (such as by not currently exercising the power, but could).

(2) In general.— An entity under the ownership, control, or influence of the government of a covered nation may not access any of the resources of the Center.

(3) Criteria for identification.— The Director, working with the heads of the relevant Federal agencies, shall establish criteria to determine if any entity that seeks to utilize the resources of the Center is under the ownership, control, or influence of the government of a covered nation.”.

(a) Definitions.— In this section:

(1) Appropriate committees of Congress.— The term appropriate committees of Congress means—

(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate; and

(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives.

(2) Director.— The term Director means the Director of the National Science Foundation.

(3) Institute.— The term Institute means the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

(4) Secretary.— The term Secretary means the Secretary of Energy.

(5) Under Secretary.— The term Under Secretary means the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology.

(b) Program required.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary and the Secretary, in coordination with the Director, shall jointly establish a testbed program to encourage collaboration and support partnerships between the National Laboratories, Federal laboratories, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource pilot program established by the Director, or any successor program, and public and private sector entities, including companies of all sizes, to conduct tests, evaluations, and security or vulnerability risk assessments, and to support research and development, of artificial intelligence systems, including measurement methodologies developed by the Institute, in order to develop standards and encourage development of a third-party ecosystem.

(c) Activities.— In carrying out the program required by subsection (b), the Under Secretary and the Secretary—

(1) may use the advanced computing resources, testbeds, and expertise of the National Laboratories, Federal laboratories, the Institute, the National Science Foundation, and private sector entities to run tests and evaluations on the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence systems;

(2) shall use existing solutions to the maximum extent practicable;

(3) shall develop automated and reproducible tests and evaluations for artificial intelligence systems to the extent that is practicable;

(4) shall assess the computational resources necessary to run tests and evaluations of artificial intelligence systems;

(5) shall research methods to effectively minimize the computational resources needed to run tests, evaluations, and security assessments of artificial intelligence systems;

(6) shall where practicable, develop tests and evaluations for artificial intelligence systems that are designed for high-, medium-, and low-computational intensity;

(7) shall prioritize assessments by identifying security vulnerabilities of artificial intelligence systems, including the establishment of and utilization of existing classified testbeds, at the National Laboratories if necessary, including with respect to—

(A) autonomous offensive cyber capabilities;

(B) cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the artificial intelligence software ecosystem and beyond;

(C) chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, critical infrastructure, and energy-security threats or hazards; and

(D) such other capabilities as the Under Secretary or the Secretary determines necessary; and

(8) shall organize a hackathon to test artificial intelligence systems security risks and vulnerabilities.

(d) Consideration given.— In carrying out the activities required by subsection (c), the Under Secretary and the Secretary shall take under consideration the applicability of any tests, evaluations, and risk assessments to artificial intelligence systems trained using primarily biological sequence data that could be used to enhance an artificial intelligence system’s ability to contribute to the creation of a pandemic or biological weapon, including those systems used for gene synthesis.

(e) Metrics.— The Under Secretary and the Secretary shall jointly develop metrics to assess—

(1) the effectiveness of the program in encouraging collaboration and supporting partnerships as described in subsection (b); and

(2) the impact of the program on public and private sector integration and use of artificial intelligence systems.

(f) Use of existing program.— In carrying out the program required by subsection (b), the Under Secretary, the Secretary, and the Director may use a program that was in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.

(g) Evaluation and findings.— Not later than 3 years after the start of the program required by subsection (b), the Under Secretary and the Secretary shall jointly—

(1) evaluate the success of the program in encouraging collaboration and supporting partnerships as described in subsection (b), using the metrics developed pursuant to subsection (e);

(2) evaluate the success of the program in encouraging public and private sector integration and use of artificial intelligence systems by using the metrics developed pursuant to subsection (e); and

(3) submit to the appropriate committees of Congress the evaluation supported pursuant to paragraph (1) and the findings of the Under Secretary, the Secretary, and the Director with respect to the testbed program.

(h) Consultation.— In carrying out subsection (b), the Under Secretary and the Secretary shall consult, as the Under Secretary and the Secretary consider appropriate, with the following:

(1) Industry, including private artificial intelligence laboratories, companies of all sizes, and representatives from the United States financial sector.

(2) Academia and institutions of higher education.

(3) Civil society.

(i) Establishment of voluntary foundation models test program.— In carrying out the program under subsection (b), the Under Secretary and the Secretary shall, jointly carry out a test program to provide vendors of foundation models, as well as vendors of artificial intelligence virtual agents and robots that incorporate foundation models, the opportunity to voluntarily test foundation models across a range of modalities, such as models that ingest and output text, images, audio, video, software code, and mixed modalities.

(j) Matters relating to disclosure and access.—

(1) Limitation on access to content.— Access to a contributing private sector person’s voluntarily provided confidential content, as deemed confidential by the contributing private sector person, shall be limited to the contributing private sector person and the Institute.

(2) Aggregated information.— The Under Secretary and the Secretary may make aggregated, deidentified information available to contributing companies, the public, and other agencies, as the Under Secretary considers appropriate, in support of the purposes of this section.

(3) FOIA exemption.— Any confidential content, as deemed confidential by the contributing private sector person, shall be exempt from public disclosure under section 552(b)(3) of title 5, United States Code.

(k) Rule of construction.— Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a person to disclose any information, including information—

(1) relating to a trade secret or other protected intellectual property right;

(2) that is confidential business information; or

(3) that is privileged.

(l) Sunset.— The programs required by subsections (b) and (i) and the requirements of this section shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(a) In general.— The Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and the Secretary of Energy may use the program established under section 102(b) to advance materials science and energy storage and optimization and to support advanced manufacturing for the benefit of the United States economy through the use of artificial intelligence, autonomous laboratories, and artificial intelligence integrated with emerging technologies, such as quantum hybrid computing and robotics.

(b) Support for accelerated technologies.— The Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Energy shall ensure that technologies accelerated under subsection (a) are supported by advanced algorithms and models, uncertainty quantification, and software and workforce development tools to produce benchmark data, model comparison tools, and best practices guides.

(c) Public-Private partnerships.— In carrying out subsection (a), the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Energy shall, in consultation with industry, civil society, and academia, enter into such public-private partnerships as the Secretaries jointly determine appropriate.

(d) Resources.— In carrying out this section, the Secretaries may—

(1) use science and technology resources from the Manufacturing USA Program, the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the National Laboratories, Federal laboratories, and the private sector; and

(2) the program established under section 102(b).

(a) Coordination and duplication.— The Secretary of Commerce shall take such actions as may be necessary to ensure no duplication of activities carried out under this subtitle with the activities of—

(1) research entities of the Department of Energy, including—

(A) the National Laboratories; and

(B) the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program; and

(2) relevant industries.

(b) National laboratory resources.— Any advanced computing resources, testbeds, expertise, or other resources of the Department of Energy or the National Laboratories that are provided to the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or any other applicable entities under this subtitle shall be provided—

(1) on a reimbursable basis; and

(2) pursuant to a reimbursable agreement.

(c) Waiver.— The Secretary may waive the requirements set forth in subsection (b) if the Secretary determines the waiver is necessary or appropriate to carry out the missions of the Department of Commerce.

(d) Savings provision.— Nothing in this subtitle shall be construed—

(1) to modify any requirement or authority provided under section 5501 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9461); or

(2) to allow the Secretary of Commerce (including the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology or the Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation) or the Director of the National Science Foundation to use monetary resources of the Department of Energy or any National Laboratory.

(a) In general.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology shall, in coordination with the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Energy, submit to Congress a report on the implementation of sections 102 and 103.

(b) Contents.— The report submitted pursuant to subsection (a) shall include the following:

(1) A description of the reimbursable agreements, statements of work, and associated project schedules and deliverables for the testbed program established pursuant to section 102(b) and section 103(a).

(2) Details on the total amount of reimbursable agreements entered into pursuant to section 104(b).

(3) Such additional information as the Under Secretary determines appropriate.

(a) In general.— The Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology (in this section referred to as the “Under Secretary”) and the Secretary of Energy (in this section referred to as the “Secretary”) shall jointly lead information exchange and coordination among Federal agencies and communication from Federal agencies to the private sector of the United States and like-minded governments of foreign countries to ensure effective Federal engagement in the development and use of international technical standards for artificial intelligence.

(b) Requirements.— To support private sector-led engagement and ensure effective Federal engagement in the development and use of international technical standards for artificial intelligence, the Under Secretary shall seek to form alliances or coalitions with like-minded governments of foreign countries—

(1) to support the private sector-led development and adoption of standards or alignment with respect to artificial intelligence;

(2) to encourage technical standards developed in the United States to be adopted by international standards organizations and to advocate for international approaches to governance of artificial intelligence that promote innovation and counter influence from foreign adversaries;

(3) to facilitate international collaboration on innovation, science, and advancement in artificial intelligence research and development, including data sharing, expertise, and resources;

(4) to develop the government-to-government infrastructure to support the activities described in paragraphs (1) through (3), using existing bilateral and multilateral agreements to the extent practicable;

(5) to work with like-minded governments on identifying best practices to maintain cybersecurity of artificial intelligence models; and

(6) to work in coordination with the Secretary of State, the National Security Council, and the National Science Foundation to develop, implement, and share information on complementary technology protection measures, including in basic research and higher education, to mitigate risks of exploitation by foreign adversaries.

(c) Criteria for participation.— In forming an alliance or coalition of like-minded governments of foreign countries under subsection (b), the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of State, and the Director, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies, shall jointly establish technology trust criteria—

(1) to ensure all partner countries have a high level of scientific and technological advancement; and

(2) to support the principles for international standards development as detailed in the Committee Decision on World Trade Organization Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (Annex 2 of Part 1 of G/TBT/1), on international standards, such as transparency, openness, and consensus-based decision making.

(d) Consultation on innovation and advancements in artificial intelligence.— In forming an alliance or coalition under subsection (b), the Director, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of State shall consult with the Secretary of Energy and the Director of the National Science Foundation on approaches to innovation and advancements in artificial intelligence.

(e) Security and protection of intellectual property.— The Director, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Energy, and the Secretary of State shall jointly ensure that an alliance or coalition formed under subsection (b) is only undertaken with countries that—

(1) have in place sufficient intellectual property protections, safety standards, and risk management approaches relevant to innovation and artificial intelligence; and

(2) develop and coordinate research security measures, export controls, and intellectual property protections relevant to innovation, development, and standard-setting relating to artificial intelligence.

(f) Limitation on eligibility of the People's Republic of China.—

(1) In general.— The People’s Republic of China is not eligible to participate in an alliance or coalition of like-minded governments of foreign countries under subsection (b) until the United States Trade Representative determines in a report to Congress required by section 421 of the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 6951) that the People’s Republic of China has come into compliance with the commitments it made in connection with its accession to the World Trade Organization.

(2) Report required.— Upon the submission of a report described in paragraph (1), the officials specified in paragraph (3) shall jointly submit to Congress a report that includes the following:

(A) A detailed justification for why government-to-government information exchange and coordination with the Government of the People’s Republic of China is in the national security interests of the United States.

(B) An assessment of the risks and potential effects of such coordination, including any potential for the transfer under an alliance or coalition described in paragraph (1) of technology or intellectual property capable of harming the national security interests of the United States.

(C) A detailed justification for how the officials specified in paragraph (3) intend to address human rights concerns in any scientific and technology collaboration proposed to be conducted by such an alliance or coalition.

(D) An assessment of the extent to which those officials will be able to continuously monitor the commitments made by the People’s Republic of China in participating in such an alliance or coalition.

(E) Such other information relating to such an alliance or coalition as those officials consider appropriate.

(3) Officials specified.— The officials specified in this paragraph are the following:

(A) The Director.

(B) The Secretary of Commerce.

(C) The Secretary of Energy.

(D) The Secretary of State.

(g) Rule of construction.— Nothing in this section shall be construed—

(1) to prohibit a person (as defined in section 551 of title 5, United States Code) from participating in an international standards body; or

(2) to constrain separate engagement with emerging economies on artificial intelligence.

(a) Report required.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report on regulatory impediments to innovation in artificial intelligence systems.

(b) Contents.— The report submitted pursuant to subsection (a) shall include the following:

(1) Significant examples of Federal statutes and regulations that directly affect the innovation of artificial intelligence systems, including the ability of companies of all sizes to compete in artificial intelligence, which should also account for the effect of voluntary standards and best practices developed with contributions from the Federal Government.

(2) An evaluation of the progress in government adoption of artificial intelligence and use of artificial intelligence to improve the quality of government services.

(3) An evaluation of, and examples of, where artificial intelligence assists Federal agencies deliver services to the public, including towards combating fraud, and ways to increase opportunities for increased use of such artificial intelligence systems by the Federal Government.

(4) Examples of Federal laws and regulations relating to infrastructure and energy that unduly burden artificial intelligence systems.

(5) Based on the findings of the Comptroller General with respect to paragraphs (1) through (5), such recommendations as the Comptroller General may have for legislative or administrative action to increase the rate of innovation in artificial intelligence systems.

(a) In general.— Title LI of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9411 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“5103A. Public data for artificial intelligence systems.—

(a) List of priorities.—

(1) In general.— To expedite the development of artificial intelligence systems in the United States, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (in this section referred to as the “Director”) shall, acting through the National Science and Technology Council and the Interagency Committee and in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building established under section 315 of title 5, United States Code, develop a list of priorities for Federal investment in creating or improving curated, publicly available Federal Government data for training and evaluating artificial intelligence systems and identify an appropriate location to host curated datasets.

(2) Requirements.—

(A) In general.— The list developed pursuant to paragraph (1) shall—

(i) prioritize data that will advance novel artificial intelligence systems in the public interest;

(ii) prioritize datasets that are the result of scientific research that was funded by the Federal Government; and

(iii) prioritize datasets unlikely to independently receive sufficient private sector support to enable their creation, absent Federal funding.

(B) Datasets identified.— In carrying out subparagraph (A)(ii), the Director shall identify 20 datasets to be prioritized.

(3) Considerations.— In developing the list under paragraph (1), the Director shall consider the following:

(A) Applicability to the initial list of societal, national, and geostrategic challenges set forth by subsection (b) of section 10387 of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19107), or any successor list.

(B) Applicability to the initial list of key technology focus areas set forth by subsection (c) of such section, or any successor list.

(C) Applicability to other major United States economic sectors, such as agriculture, health care, transportation, manufacturing, biotechnology, communications, weather services, and positive utility to small- and medium-sized United States businesses.

(D) Opportunities to improve datasets in effect before the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026.

(E) Inclusion of data representative of the entire population of the United States.

(F) Potential national security threats to releasing datasets, consistent with the United States Government approach to data flows.

(G) Requirements of laws in effect.

(H) Applicability to the priorities listed in the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan of the National Science and Technology Council, dated October 2016, and subsequent updates, and the priorities listed in Winning the Race, America’s AI Action Plan, dated July 2025.

(I) Ability to use data already made available to the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot program or any successor program.

(J) Coordination with other Federal open data efforts, as applicable.

(K) Requirements for researchers funded by the Federal Government to disclose nonproprietary, nonsensitive datasets that are used by artificial intelligence models during the course of research and development.

(L) Opportunities for the National Science Foundation to maintain integrated, interoperable, and multimodal datasets readily providing access to scientific and engineering demonstration projects.

(4) Public input.— Before finalizing the list required by paragraph (1), the Director shall implement public comment procedures for receiving input and comment from private industry, academia, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders.

(b) Interagency Committee.— In carrying out this section, the Interagency Committee—

(1) may establish or leverage existing initiatives, including through public-private partnerships, for the creation or improvement of curated datasets identified in the list developed pursuant to subsection (a)(1), including methods for addressing data scarcity;

(2) may apply the priorities set forth in the list developed pursuant to subsection (a)(1) to the enactment of Federal public access and open government data policies;

(3) shall ensure consistency with Federal provisions of law relating to privacy, including the technology and privacy standards applied to the National Secure Data Service under section 10375(f) of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19085(f)); and

(4) shall ensure that no data sharing is permitted with any country that the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Energy, and the Director of National Intelligence, determines to be engaged in conduct that is detrimental to the national security or foreign policy of the United States.

(c) Availability of datasets.— Datasets that are created or improved pursuant to this section—

(1) shall, in the case of a dataset created or improved by a Federal agency, be made available to the comprehensive data inventory developed and maintained by the Federal agency pursuant to section 3511(a) of title 44, United States Code, in accordance with all applicable regulations; and

(2) may be made available to the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource pilot program established by the Director of the National Science Foundation, and the applicable programs established by the Department of Energy, in accordance with Executive Order 14110 (88 Fed. Reg. 75191; relating to safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence), or any successor program.

(d) Report.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, the Director shall, acting through the National Science and Technology Council and the Interagency Committee, submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report that includes—

(1) best practices in developing publicly curated artificial intelligence datasets;

(2) lessons learned and challenges encountered in developing the curated artificial intelligence datasets;

(3) principles used for artificial intelligence-ready data;

(4) recommendations relating to artificial intelligence-ready data standards and potential processes for development of such standards;

(5) recommendations for maintaining and expanding the availability of high-quality data sets;

(6) recommendations for methods to increase incentives for researchers support by the Federal Government to release high-quality publicly available datasets, that protects against risks to disclosure of personally identifiable information and national and economic security risks; and

(7) recommendations for establishing secure compute environments at the National Science Foundation to enable secure artificial intelligence use cases for controlled access to restricted Federal data.

(e) Rules of construction.—

(1) In general.— Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the Federal Government or other contributors to disclose any information—

(A) relating to a trade secret or other protected intellectual property right;

(B) that is confidential business information; or

(C) that is privileged.

(2) Disclosure to public datasets.— Except as specifically provided for in this section, nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the head of a Federal agency from withholding information from a public dataset.”.

(b) Clerical amendments.— The table of contents at the beginning of section 2 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 and the table of contents at the beginning of title LI of such Act are both amended by inserting after the items relating to section 5103 the following new item:

(a) In general.— Title LI of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9411 et seq.), as amended by section 201, is further amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“5107. Federal grand challenges in artificial intelligence.—

(a) Establishment of program.—

(1) In general.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (acting through the National Science and Technology Council) and the Interagency Committee may establish a program to award prizes, using the authorities and processes established under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719), to eligible participants as determined by the co-chairs of the Interagency Committee pursuant to subsection (e).

(2) Purposes.— The purposes of the program required by paragraph (1) are as follows:

(A) To expedite the development of artificial intelligence systems in the United States.

(B) To stimulate artificial intelligence research, development, and commercialization that solves or advances specific, well-defined, and measurable challenges in 1 or more of the categories established pursuant to subsection (b).

(b) Federal grand challenges in artificial intelligence.—

(1) List of priorities.— The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (acting through the National Science and Technology Council) and the Interagency Committee and in consultation with industry, civil society, and academia, shall identify, and annually review and update as the Director considers appropriate, a list of priorities for Federal grand challenges in artificial intelligence pursuant to the purposes set forth under subsection (a)(2).

(2) Initial list.—

(A) Contents.— The list established pursuant to paragraph (1) may include the following priorities:

(i) To overcome challenges with engineering of and applied research on microelectronics, including through integration of artificial intelligence with emerging technologies, such as neuromorphic and quantum computing, or with respect to the physical limits on transistors, advanced interconnects, and memory elements.

(ii) To promote transformational or long-term advancements in computing and artificial intelligence technologies through—

(I) next-generation algorithm design;

(II) next-generation compute capability;

(III) generative and adaptive artificial intelligence for design applications;

(IV) photonics-based microprocessors and optical communication networks, including electrophotonics;

(V) the chemistry and physics of new materials;

(VI) biotechnology, such as modeling a single cell;

(VII) energy use or energy efficiency;

(VIII) techniques to establish cryptographically secure content provenance information; or

(IX) safety and controls for artificial intelligence applications.

(iii) To promote explainability and mechanistic interpretability of artificial intelligence systems.

(iv) To advance fundamental understanding of artificial intelligence, including through breakthroughs in theoretical, computational, and experimental methods that discover new and transformative paradigms that explain the advanced capabilities of artificial intelligence in domains such as the following:

(I) Interpretability.

(II) Control.

(III) Steerability.

(IV) Robustness against foreign adversaries.

(v) To develop artificial intelligence solutions, including through integration among emerging technologies such as neuromorphic and quantum computing to overcome barriers relating to innovations in advanced manufacturing in the United States, including areas such as—

(I) materials, nanomaterials, and composites;

(II) rapid, complex design;

(III) sustainability and environmental impact of manufacturing operations;

(IV) predictive maintenance of machinery;

(V) improved part quality;

(VI) process inspections;

(VII) worker safety; and

(VIII) robotics.

(vi) To develop artificial intelligence solutions in sectors of the economy, such as expanding the use of artificial intelligence in maritime vessels, including in navigation and in the design of propulsion systems and fuels.

(vii) To develop artificial intelligence solutions to improve border security, including solutions relevant to the detection of fentanyl, illicit contraband, and other illegal activities.

(viii) To develop artificial intelligence for science applications.

(ix) To develop cybersecurity for artificial intelligence-related intellectual property, such as artificial intelligence systems and artificial intelligence algorithms, including robustness, resilience, and security from foreign adversaries.

(x) To develop artificial intelligence solutions to modernize code and software systems that are deployed in government agencies and critical infrastructure and are at risk of maintenance difficulties due to code obsolescence or challenges finding expertise in outdated code bases.

(xi) To develop solutions to reduce the energy consumption in developing, deploying, and maintain data-efficient and high-performance artificial intelligence models.

(xii) To develop methods to prevent misuse of artificial intelligence systems for malicious purposes.

(xiii) To find applications of artificial intelligence in wireless communications systems, including cellular networks and cybersecurity efforts.

(xiv) To advance the capabilities of artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation for physical laboratory infrastructure and cloud laboratories.

(3) Consultation on identification and selection of grand challenges.— The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, such agency heads as the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy considers relevant, and the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee shall each identify and select artificial intelligence research and development grand challenges in which eligible participants will compete to solve or advance for prize awards under subsection (a).

(4) Public input on identification.— The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall also seek public input on the identification of artificial intelligence research and development grand challenges under subsection (a).

(5) Problem statements; success metrics.— For each priority for a Federal grand challenge identified under paragraph (1) and the grand challenges identified and selected under paragraph (3), the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall—

(A) establish a specific and well-defined grand challenge problem statement and ensure that such problem statement is published on a website linking out to relevant prize competition listings on the website Challenge.gov, or successor website, that is managed by the General Services Administration; and

(B) establish and publish on the website Challenge.gov, or successor website, clear targets, success metrics, and validation protocols for the prize competitions designed to address each grand challenge, in order to provide specific benchmarks that will be used to evaluate submissions to the prize competition.

(c) Federal investment initiatives authorized.— Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this purpose, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transportation, the Director of the National Science Foundation may, consistent with the missions or responsibilities of each Federal agency, establish 1 or more prize competitions under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719), challenge-based acquisitions, or other research and development investments that each agency head deems appropriate consistent with the list of priorities established pursuant to subsection (b)(1).

(d) Requirements.—

(1) In general.— The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy shall develop requirements for—

(A) the process for prize competitions under subsections (a) and (c), including eligibility criteria for participants, consistent with the requirements under paragraph (2); and

(B) testing, judging, and verification procedures for submissions to receive a prize award under subsection (c).

(2) Eligibility requirement and judging.—

(A) Eligibility.— In accordance with the requirement described in section 24(g)(3) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(g)(3)), a recipient of a prize award under subsection (c)—

(i) that is a private entity shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States; and

(ii) who is an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.

(B) Judges.— In accordance with section 24(k) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(k)), a judge of a prize competition under subsection (c) may be an individual from the private sector.

(3) Agency leadership.— Each agency head carrying out an investment initiative under subsection (c) shall ensure that—

(A) for each prize competition or investment initiative carried out by the agency head under such subsection, there is—

(i) a positive impact on the economic competitiveness of the United States;

(ii) a benefit to United States industry;

(iii) to the extent possible, leveraging of the resources and expertise of industry and philanthropic partners in shaping the investments; and

(iv) in a case involving development and manufacturing, use of advanced manufacturing in the United States; and

(B) all research conducted for purposes of the investment initiative is conducted in the United States.

(e) Reports.—

(1) Notification of winning submission.— Not later than 60 days after the date on which a prize is awarded under subsection (c), the agency head awarding the prize shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives, and such other committees of Congress as the agency head considers relevant a report that describes the winning submission to the prize competition and its benefits to the United States.

(2) Biennial report.—

(A) In general.— Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, and biennially thereafter, the heads of agencies described in subsection (c) shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives, and such other committees of Congress as the agency heads consider relevant a report that includes—

(i) a description of the activities carried out by the agency heads under this section;

(ii) a description of the active competitions and the results of completed competitions under subsection (c); and

(iii) efforts to provide information to the public on active competitions under subsection (c) to encourage participation.

(B) Public accessibility.— The agency heads described in subsection (c) shall make the biennial report required under subparagraph (A) publicly accessible, including by posting the biennial report on a website in an easily accessible location, such as the GovInfo website of the Government Publishing Office.

(f) Accessibility.— In carrying out any competition under subsection (c), the head of an agency shall post the active prize competitions and available prize awards under subsection (b) to Challenge.gov, or successor website, after the grand challenges are selected and the prize competitions are designed pursuant to subsections (c) and (e) to ensure the prize competitions are widely accessible to eligible participants.

(g) Sunset.— This section shall terminate on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026.”.

(b) Comptroller General of the United States studies and reports.—

(1) Initial study.—

(A) In general.— Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study of Federal prize competitions, which shall include an assessment of the efficacy and impact of prize competitions generally.

(B) Elements.— The study conducted under subparagraph (A) shall include, to the extent practicable, the following:

(i) A survey of all existing, current and ongoing Federal prize competitions carried out under authorities enacted before the date of the enactment of this Act.

(ii) An assessment of those existing, current, and ongoing Federal prize competitions that includes addressing—

(I) whether and what technology or innovation would have been developed in the absence of the prize competitions;

(II) whether the prize competitions shortened the timeframe for the development of the technology or innovation;

(III) whether the prize competition was cost effective;

(IV) what, if any, other benefits were gained from conducting the prize competitions;

(V) whether the use of a more traditional policy tool such as a grant or contract have resulted in the development of a similar technology or innovation;

(VI) whether prize competitions might be designed differently in a way that would result in a more effective or revolutionary technology being developed;

(VII) what are appropriate metrics that could be used for determining the success of a prize competition, and whether those metrics differ when evaluating near-term and long-term impacts of prize competitions; and

(VIII) suggested best practices of prize competitions.

(C) Congressional briefing.— Not later than 540 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall provide the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a briefing on the findings of the Comptroller General with respect to the study conducted under subparagraph (A).

(D) Report.— Not later than 540 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the congressional committees specified in subparagraph (C) a report on the findings and recommendations of Comptroller General from the study conducted under subparagraph (A).

(2) Interim study.—

(A) In general.— The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study of the Federal prize challenges implemented under section 5108 of the of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, as added by subsection (a), which shall include an assessment of the efficacy and effect of such prize competitions.

(B) Elements.— The study conducted under subparagraph (A) shall include, to the extent practicable, the following:

(i) A survey of all Federal prize competitions implemented under section 5108 of the of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, as added by subsection (a).

(ii) An assessment of the Federal prize competitions implemented such section, which shall include addressing the same considerations as set forth under paragraph (1)(B)(ii).

(iii) An assessment of the efficacy, impact, and cost-effectiveness of prize competitions implemented under section 5108 of the of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020, as added by subsection (a), compared to other Federal prize competitions.

(C) Congressional briefing.— Not later than 1 year after completing the study required by subparagraph (A), the Comptroller General shall provide the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a briefing on the findings of the Comptroller General with respect to the study conducted under subparagraph (A).

(D) Report.— Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the congressional committees specified in subparagraph (C) a report on the findings and recommendations of the Comptroller General with respect to the study conducted under subparagraph (A).

(c) Clerical amendments.— The table of contents at the beginning of section 2 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 and the table of contents at the beginning of title LI of such Act, as amended by section 201, are both amended by inserting after the items relating to section 5107 the following new item:

The activities authorized under this Act shall be carried out in accordance with the provision of subtitle D of title VI of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.; enacted as part of division B of Public Law 117–167) and section 223 of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (42 U.S.C. 6605).

(a) In general.— Subsection (b) of section 6 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 275) is amended, in the second sentence, by striking “15” and inserting “30”.

(b) Modification of sunset.— Subsection (c) of such section is amended by striking “under section (b) shall expire on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this section” and inserting “under subsection (b) shall expire on December 30, 2035”.

(a) Definitions.— In this section:

(1) Agency.— The term agency has the meaning given such term in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code.

(2) Committees of Jurisdiction.— The term committees of jurisdiction means—

(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate; and

(B) the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives.

(3) Critical and emerging technologies.— The term critical and emerging technologies means a subset of artificial intelligence and other critical and emerging technologies included in the list of such technologies identified and maintained by the National Science and Technology Council of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

(4) Inherently governmental function.— The term inherently governmental function has the meaning given such term in section 5 of the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–270; 31 U.S.C. 501 note) and includes the meaning given such term in subpart 7.5 of part 7 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or successor regulation.

(5) Temporary fellow.— The term temporary fellow, with respect to an agency, means a fellow, contractor, consultant, or any other person performing work for the agency who is not a Federal Government employee.

(b) Certification.—

(1) In general.— Prior to performing any work for an agency under this Act relating to artificial intelligence and other critical and emerging technologies, a temporary fellow and the head of the agency shall sign a certification that the temporary fellow will not perform any inherently governmental functions.

(2) Submittal.— Not later than 30 days after the date on which the head of an agency signs a certification under paragraph (1), the head of the agency shall submit a copy of the certification to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the chairpersons and ranking members of the committees of jurisdiction.

(c) Audit.—

(1) In general.— For each agency using a temporary fellow to carry out this Act, the inspector general of the agency shall perform an annual audit of the use of temporary fellows by the agency, which includes—

(A) the number of temporary fellows used by the agency;

(B) the entities paying any temporary fellow for their work for the agency;

(C) the work temporary fellows are performing for the agency;

(D) the authorities under which the agency hired the temporary fellows; and

(E) whether the temporary fellows and the agency are complying with the requirements of section (b).

(2) Submittal to Congress.— Not later than 30 days after the date on which the inspector general of an agency completes an audit under paragraph (1), the head of the agency shall submit to the chairpersons and ranking members of the committees of jurisdiction and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a report containing the findings of inspector general with respect to the audit.