AWARE Act of 2024

Summary

Mandates the Secretary of Defense to create a ledger of all uses by the Department of Defense of AI-enabled weapon, targeting, and decision support systems within three years.

Requires the ledger to be a structured, indexed database that is regularly updated.

Calls on the Secretary of Defense to develop a risk assessment process to evaluate dependability, cybersecurity, privacy, and civilian harm risk for each AI system.

Mandates annual reevaluations of each system, and when an AI model receives an update, a new system is procured, or a new weapons review is conducted.

Requires annotations in the ledger when AI systems are shared, exported, or used internationally, noting additional risks.

Obligates annual progress reports and submissions to Congress, including the ledger and risk assessment findings, to be publicly accessible

Segment 1

SECTION 1. Short title.

This Act may be cited as the “Artificial Intelligence Weapon Accountability and Risk Evaluation Act of 2024” or the “AWARE Act of 2024”.

Requires the Secretary to create and maintain a structured, indexed ledger of all uses of covered systems by the Department of Defense.

SEC. 2. Managing risks relating to military use of artificial intelligence.

(a) Ledger of use and deployment.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary of Defense shall commence creating, and not later than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary shall complete creating, a ledger of all uses by the Department of Defense of covered systems.

(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall ensure that the ledger created pursuant to paragraph (1)—

(A) is a structured, indexed database; and

(B) maintained and updated on a regular basis to ensure that the ledger is accurate.

Establishes a risk assessment process for evaluating each unique implementation of a covered system within three years.

(b) Risk assessment process.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a risk assessment process that holistically evaluates each unique implementation by the Department of a covered system included in the ledger required by subsection (a).

Requires the process to cover dependability, cybersecurity, privacy, bias, deployment span, and civilian harm risk, with annual assessments.

(2) ELEMENTS.—

(A) IN GENERAL.—The process required by paragraph (1) shall, at a minimum, cover matters relating to the following:

(i) Dependability.

(ii) Cybersecurity.

(iii) Privacy.

(iv) Bias.

(v) Bias towards escalation.

(vi) Deployment span.

(vii) Risk of civilian harm.

(B) BIAS TOWARDS ESCALATION.—For purposes of subparagraph (A)(v), the process shall cover the intent of the system and assess for any bias relating to whether the technology ever escalates or deescalates conflict situations.

(C) DEPLOYMENT SPAN.—For purposes of subparagraph (A)(vi), the process shall address changes in risk levels based on whether covered systems are deployed singularly or in clusters or swarms.

(3) ANNUAL ASSESSMENTS.—The Secretary shall ensure that the process required by paragraph (1) requires reevaluation of each covered system included in the ledger required by subsection (a)—

(A) not less frequently than annually; and

(B) whenever—

(i) the underlying foundation artificial intelligence model receives an update;

(ii) the Department procures any covered system that has not previously been evaluated by the process; and

(iii) a new weapons review of a covered system is conducted by the Department.

Requires the Secretary to annotate ledger when a covered system is shared or exported to a foreign country and creates additional risks.

(c) Annotations regarding exports.—The Secretary shall annotate in the ledger required by subsection (a) when—

(1) a covered system developed or owned by the Department is shared with a foreign country, exported to a foreign country, or used by any foreign person or government; and

(2) such sharing, exporting, or use presents additional risk covered by the risk assessment process required by subsection (b).

Requires the Secretary to annually report on progress in carrying out this Act to Congress for three years post-enactment.

(d) Progress reports to Congress.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently once each year thereafter until the date that is three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report on the progress of the Secretary in carrying out this Act.

Requires the Secretary to submit to Congress the ledger as previously outlined and the annual report with respect to the risk assessments conducted, to be publicly available to the fullest extent possible.

(e) Annual submissions to Congress.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than three years after the date of the enactment of this Act and not less frequently than once each year thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress an annual submission that includes the following:

(A) The ledger required by subsection (a).

(B) An annual report on the findings of the Secretary with respect to the risk assessments conducted, in the year covered by the annual submission, pursuant to the risk assessment process established under subsection (b).

(C) The annotations made under subsection (c) during the year covered by the annual submission.

(2) FORM.—Each submission under paragraph (1) shall be, to the fullest extent possible, in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex to the degree the Secretary considers necessary.

(3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall make available to the public the unclassified portion of each annual submission under paragraph (1).

Segment 8

(f) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the ledger created pursuant to subsection (a)(1) will reflect strong and continuing commitment of the Department of Defense to being a transparent global leader in establishing responsible policies regarding military uses of artificial intelligence-enabled weapons, targeting, and decision support systems.

Ensures no reduction of pre-existing privacy, safety, or security protections.

(g) Rule of construction.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to reduce any existing privacy, safety, or security protections or guardrails in effect before the date of the enactment of this Act.

Defines "artificial intelligence" and "covered system," for the purposes of this Act.

(h) Definitions.—In this section:

(1) 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) The term “covered system” includes the following systems that are enabled by artificial intelligence:

(A) A weapon system.

(B) A targeting system.

(C) A decision support system that aids a system described in subparagraph (A) or (B).