Title II — Artificial intelligence research, development, capacity building activities

“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.”

“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.”