S.Amdt. 3158

SA 3158, submitted by Mr. Welch, aims to add a new section to bill S. 2296 focused on managing risks related to the military use of artificial intelligence. This amendment requires the Secretary of Defense to track and evaluate AI-enabled systems used by the Department of Defense.

The amendment proposes the following additions:

• Ledger of Use: The Secretary of Defense must create a structured, indexed database of all "covered systems," which include AI-enabled weapon systems, targeting systems, and decision support systems.

• Risk Assessment Process: The Secretary must establish a process to evaluate these systems based on:

  • Dependability, cybersecurity, privacy, and bias.
  • Bias towards escalation (whether technology escalates or deescalates conflict).
  • Deployment span (risks related to singular deployments versus clusters or swarms).
  • Risk of civilian harm.

• Evaluation Timeline: Systems must be reevaluated at least annually, when the AI model is updated, when a new system is procured, or when a new weapons review is conducted.

• Export Tracking: The ledger must note when covered systems are shared with, exported to, or used by foreign countries or persons if it presents additional risks.

• Congressional Oversight: The Secretary must provide progress reports to Congress and eventually submit annual submissions containing the ledger, risk assessment findings, and export annotations. These submissions should be unclassified to the fullest extent possible and made available to the public.