WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Co-Chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, along with Senators Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) have introduced first-of-its-kind legislation that establishes federal oversight of artificial intelligence to safeguard U.S. national security interests against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber threats posed by future developments in advanced AI models. The bipartisan Preserving American Dominance in AI Act, crafted, based on the group’s previously-released framework, would establish the Artificial Intelligence Safety Review Office within the Department of Commerce. The Office would work with industry to defend frontier models against misuse by foreign adversaries looking to exploit the technology for nefarious purposes.

The Office’s mission would be to prioritize the national security implications of AI while ensuring the U.S. domestic AI industry remains dominant over our foreign adversaries. This legislation is limited to frontier models — the most advanced AI models that are still yet to be developed.

“In the ever-evolving global threat landscape, the United States has to stay one step ahead of new technologies to protect both our national security and interests at home and abroad — and that means moving carefully, warily, and thoughtfully into an Artificial Intelligence future,” said Senator King. “This bipartisan Preserving American Dominance in AI Act provides critical guidelines for federal oversight of AI technology so that it cannot be misused by bad actors looking to cause harm. We must ask important questions now to wisely navigate our next steps and decisions. Thanks to my colleagues for working together on a solution that promotes American development while safeguarding the public against biological, chemical, cyber, and nuclear threats.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to dramatically improve and transform society, but also presents a spectrum of risks that could be harmful to the American public, some of which could have catastrophic effects. Extremely powerful frontier AI could be misused by foreign adversaries, terrorists, and less sophisticated bad actors to cause widespread harm and threaten U.S. national security. Experts from across the U.S. government, industry, and academia believe that advanced AI could one day enable or assist in the development of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber weapons.

The Preserving American Dominance in Al Act would establish the Artificial Intelligence Safety Review Office, housed within the Department of Commerce. The Office would be responsible for working with frontier Al companies, large datacenters, and infrastructure-as-a-service providers (IaaS) to: (a) prevent exploitation of these industries by adversaries; and (b) ensure pre-deployment evaluations similar to CFIUS for the most advanced frontier Al models that pose chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber risks.

More specifically, the bill would:

1. Establish the Artificial Intelligence Safety Review Office, led by a Senate-confirmed Under Secretary of Commerce for Artificial Intelligence Safety.
2. Direct the Office to:
1. Develop a take-home test for frontier Al model developers to evaluate their models for extreme risks prior to deployment;
2. Collaborate with the Al Safety Institute to provide industry with best practices and technical assistance; and
3. Study future Al-related risks and report findings to Congress.
3. Require the most advanced data centers that train the most advanced Al models to report the owner and location of the facility to the Office.
4. Protect industry from foreign adversarial actors by tasking laaS providers to implement know-your-customer standards for transactions with foreign persons.
5. Safeguard frontier Al models from cyber breaches and intellectual property theft by requiring developers to implement cybersecurity standards.
6. Help frontier Al model developers identify red-teaming best practices to test for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or cyber risks.
7. Provide the Under Secretary a 90-day window to review a frontier Al model's safeguards against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber risks.
8. Ensure a presumption of approval to prevent unnecessary roadblocks to deployment.
9. Establish penalties for developers that fail to comply with the Act.

As Co-Chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission (CSC), Senator King is recognized as one of Congress’ leading experts on cyber defense and as a strong advocate for a forward-thinking cyber strategy that emphasizes layered cyber deterrence. Since it officially launched in April 2019, dozens of CSC recommendations have been enacted into law, including the creation of a National Cyber Director. Senator King is also a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, including chair of the subcommittee on Strategic Forces. He has been a steady voice on the need to address the growing nuclear capacity of our adversaries and has expressed concern about Russia and China’s emerging “nightmare weapon” hypersonic missiles.

Full text of the Preserving American Dominance in Al Act can be found here and a one-pager can be found here.

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