TEST AI Act of 2024

This bill requires the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Secretary of Energy to jointly carry out a pilot program to assess the feasibility of establishing testbeds for developing, red-teaming, and blue-teaming artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It also includes provisions on research security at Department of Energy National Laboratories.

Sec. 2, Pilot program on establishing testbeds: Within one year of enactment, the NIST Director and the Secretary of Energy, with the interagency AI committee, private sector, and universities, must run a pilot program to assess testbeds for AI development, red-teaming (adversarial testing) and blue-teaming (vulnerability evaluation and mitigation). The testbeds must focus on AI systems used or considered by federal agencies, and include testbeds for standards to identify and mitigate cyber, data, and network vulnerabilities that risk critical infrastructure or national security. The Commerce and Energy Secretaries must sign a memorandum of understanding for access to Department of Energy resources, personnel, and facilities, including for classified testbeds. Metrics must be developed within one year of the pilot's start, and the program must be evaluated annually starting three years after commencement, with findings reported to Congress. The pilot and memorandum terminate after seven years.

Sec. 2, Research security: The bill expresses the sense of the Senate that foreign nationals from countries identified in the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment as engaging in competitive behavior threatening U.S. national security should be screened before accessing National Laboratory premises, information, or technology. The Director of the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the Department of Energy must issue a policy to assess counterintelligence risk from such covered visitors or assignees, and provide advice to National Laboratories when there is reason to believe a person is a nontraditional collection threat or poses a counterintelligence risk. The Secretary of Energy must report quarterly to Congress on the number of covered visitors/assignees permitted access, instances of advice given, and instances where a laboratory acted inconsistently with that advice.

Sec. 2, Conforming repeal: The bill strikes the existing testbed subsection (g) of section 22A of the NIST Act and redesignates the following subsection.