FY2026 NDAA, Section 1534 ("Digital sandbox environments for artificial intelligence")

Summary

Establishes a Task Force on artificial intelligence sandbox environments by April 1, 2026, under the Secretary of Defense through the Chief Digital and AI Officer.

Tasks the Task Force to develop and deploy AI sandbox environments for experimentation, training, and deployment across the Department of Defense.

Requires AI sandbox environments to be designed for use by personnel with varying technical proficiencies, facilitate familiarization with AI capabilities, and accelerate responsible AI adoption.

Chairs the Task Force with the Chief Digital and AI Officer and includes key officials from the Department of Defense, military departments, and combatant commands.

Requires the Task Force to standardize AI sandbox requirements across the Department of Defense, catalog and align existing solutions, improve efficiency and approvals, and provide clear guidance and resources to support users of all technical skill levels.

Requires a briefing to congressional defense committees by August 1, 2026.

Terminates the Task Force on January 1, 2030.

Defines key terms including "artificial intelligence" and "artificial intelligence sandbox environment."

Requires the Secretary of Defense to establish an AI sandbox task force for the development and deployment of AI sandbox environments necessary to support

artificial intelligence experimentation, training, familiarization, and development across the Department of Defense.

SEC. 1534. DIGITAL SANDBOX ENVIRONMENTS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. (a) Requirement To Establish.--Not later than April 1, 2026, the Secretary of Defense shall, acting through the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Department of Defense, establish a task force on artificial intelligence sandbox environments (in this section referred to as the ``Task Force''). (b) Purpose.--The Task Force shall identify, coordinate, and advance Department of Defense-wide efforts to develop and deploy artificial intelligence sandbox environments necessary to support artificial intelligence experimentation, training, familiarization, and development across the Department of Defense. Such artificial intelligence sandbox environments shall-- (1) be designed for use by personnel with varying levels of technical proficiency, from personnel with little technical proficiency to personnel with expert technical proficiency; (2) enable the building, training, evaluation, and deployment of artificial intelligence models; (3) facilitate familiarity with and utilization of existing artificial intelligence capabilities; and (4) accelerate the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence across the Department.

Designates the Chief Digital and AI Officer as chair of the Department of Defense AI Task Force; includes key officials from the Department of Defense, military departments, and combatant commands.

(c) Chair.--The Task Force shall be chaired by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer of the Department of Defense. (d) Composition.--The Task Force shall be composed of-- (1) the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Defense; (2) the chief artificial intelligence officers of the military departments, or in the absence of such position, the individual responsible for leading artificial intelligence efforts within each military department; (3) the chief information officers of the military departments; (4) the chief artificial intelligence officers of the combatant commands and joint staff, or in the absence of such position, the individual responsible for leading artificial intelligence efforts within each combatant command; (5) the chief information officers of the combatant commands, and joint staff, or in the absence of such position, the individual responsible for leading information technology efforts within each combatant command; (6) the Directors for Command, Control, Communications, and Computers/Cyber of the combatant commands, or their designees; (7) the Director for Command, Control, Communications, and Computers/Cyber of the Joint Staff, or their designee; and (8) such other officials of the Department of Defense as the chair of the Task Force consider appropriate.

Requires the Task Force to standardize AI sandbox requirements across the Department of Defense, catalog and align existing solutions, improve efficiency and approvals, and provide clear guidance and resources to support users of all technical skill levels.

(e) Functions.--The Task Force shall-- (1) identify and consolidate common requirements with respect to artificial intelligence sandbox environments across the Department of Defense, including requirements relating to interfaces for users with varying technical proficiency, computational resources and infrastructure, pre-trained models and datasets, and educational and training materials; (2) identify, inventory, and ensure the availability of existing solutions and technical documentation and repositories for applicable artificial intelligence sandbox environments, including machine-readable documents, reference architectures, and user guides; (3) develop and make available to users of artificial intelligence sandbox environments in the Department an analysis matching common requirements identified under paragraph (1) with existing solutions identified under paragraph (2); (4) use existing mechanisms of the Department to achieve efficiencies in costs and productivity through enterprise licenses and contracts; (5) identify and, where possible, streamline authority to operate approvals for each element of common artificial intelligence sandbox environment architectures; and (6) make available to the users described in paragraph (3) guidance on the appropriate use of artificial intelligence sandbox environments of the Department for users at all levels of technical proficiency.

Defines artificial intelligence terms, including 'artificial intelligence sandbox environment' and 'authority to operate'.

(f) Briefing.--Not later than August 1, 2026, the chair of the Task Force shall provide to the congressional defense committees a briefing on the goals and objectives of the Task Force. (g) Termination.--The Task Force shall terminate on January 1, 2030. (h) Definitions.--In this section: (1) The term ``artificial intelligence'' has the meaning given such term in section 238(g) of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (Public Law 115-232; 10 U.S.C. note prec. 4061). (2) The term ``artificial intelligence sandbox environment'' means a secure, isolated computing environment that enables users with varying levels of technical proficiency to access artificial intelligence tools, models, and capabilities for the purposes of experimentation, training, testing, and development without affecting operational systems or requiring specialized technical knowledge to operate. (3) The term ``authority to operate'' means the official management decision given by a senior organizational official to authorize operation of an information system and to explicitly accept the risk to organizational operations and assets, individuals, other organizations, and the United States based on the implementation of an agreed-upon set of security controls, as defined in Committee on National Security Systems Instruction 4009, or successor document. (4) The term ``military department'' has the meaning given such term in section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code.