15 U.S.C. § 9461 — Department of Energy artificial intel-

Page 2596 TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE § 9461 to support coursework or equivalent train- ing in artificial intelligence systems, and additional such expenses that the Director deems appropriate. (C) Omitted (3) Update to advanced technological edu- cation program (A) Omitted (B) Artificial intelligence centers of excel- lence The Director of the National Science Foundation shall establish national centers of scientific and technical education to ad- vance education and workforce development in areas related to artificial intelligence pursuant to section 1862i of title 42. Activi- ties of such centers may include— (i) the development, dissemination, and evaluation of curriculum and other edu- cational tools and methods in artificial in- telligence related fields and research areas, including technology ethics; (ii) the development and evaluation of artificial intelligence related certifi- cations for 2-year programs; and (iii) interdisciplinary science and engi- neering research in employment-based adult learning and career retraining re- lated to artificial intelligence fields. (f) National Science Foundation pilot program of grants for research in rapidly evolving, high priority topics (1) Pilot program required The Director of the National Science Foun- dation shall establish a pilot program to as- sess the feasibility and advisability of award- ing grants for the conduct of research in rap- idly evolving, high priority topics using fund- ing mechanisms that require brief project de- scriptions and internal merit review, and that may include accelerated external review. (2) Duration (A) In general The Director shall carry out the pilot pro- gram required by paragraph (1) during the 5- year period beginning on Janaury 1, 2021. (B) Assessment and continuation authority After the period set forth in paragraph (2)(A)— (i) the Director shall assess the pilot pro- gram; and (ii) if the Director determines that it is both feasible and advisable to do so, the Director may continue the pilot program. (3) Grants In carrying out the pilot program, the Direc- tor shall award grants for the conduct of re- search in topics selected by the Director in ac- cordance with paragraph (4). (4) Topic selection The Director shall select topics for research under the pilot program in accordance with the following: (A) The Director shall select artificial in- telligence as the initial topic for the pilot program. (B) The Director may select additional topics that the Director determines are— (i) rapidly evolving; and (ii) of high importance to the economy and security of the United States. (g) Authorization of appropriations There are authorized to be appropriated to the National Science Foundation to carry out this section— (1) $868,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; (2) $911,400,000 for fiscal year 2022; (3) $956,970,000 for fiscal year 2023; (4) $1,004,820,000 for fiscal year 2024; and (5) $1,055,060,000 for fiscal year 2025. (Pub. L. 116–283, div. E, title LIV, § 5401, Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4540.) Editorial Notes REFERENCES IN TEXT Sections 1885a and 1885b of title 42, referred to in sub- sec. (b)(2)(B), were in the original sections 33 and 34 of the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunity Act and were translated as meaning sections 33 and 34 of the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act to reflect the probable intent of Congress. Section 5301 of this division, referred to in subsec. (b)(7), means section 5301 of div. E of Pub. L. 116–283, Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4536. CODIFICATION Section is comprised of section 5401 of Pub. L. 116–283. Subsec. (e)(2)(C) of section 5401 of Pub. L. 116–283 amended section 1862n–1 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare. Subsec. (e)(3)(A) of section 5401 of Pub. L. 116–283 amended section 1862i of Title 42. SUBCHAPTER V—DEPARTMENT OF EN- ERGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RE- SEARCH PROGRAM § 9461. Department of Energy artificial intel- ligence research program (a) In general The Secretary shall carry out a cross-cutting research and development program to advance artificial intelligence tools, systems, capabili- ties, and workforce needs and to improve the re- liability of artificial intelligence methods and solutions relevant to the mission of the Depart- ment. In carrying out this program, the Sec- retary shall coordinate across all relevant of- fices and programs at the Department, including the Office of Science, the Office of Energy Effi- ciency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Nu- clear Energy, the Office of Fossil Energy, the Of- fice of Electricity, the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and any other relevant office determined by the Secretary. (b) Research areas In carrying out the program under subsection (a), the Secretary shall award financial assist- ance to eligible entities to carry out research projects on topics including— (1) the application of artificial intelligence systems to improve large-scale simulations of natural and other phenomena; (2) the study of applied mathematics, com- puter science, and statistics, including founda- Page 2597 TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE § 9461 tions of methods and systems of artificial in- telligence, causal and statistical inference, and the development of algorithms for artifi- cial intelligence systems; (3) the analysis of existing large-scale datasets from science and engineering experi- ments and simulations, including energy sim- ulations and other priorities at the Depart- ment as determined by the Secretary using ar- tificial intelligence tools and techniques; (4) the development of operation and control systems that enhance automated, intelligent decisionmaking capabilities; (5) the development of advanced computing hardware and computer architecture tailored to artificial intelligence systems, including the codesign of networks and computational hardware; (6) the development of standardized datasets for emerging artificial intelligence research fields and applications, including methods for addressing data scarcity; and (7) the development of trustworthy artificial intelligence systems, including— (A) algorithmic explainability; (B) analytical methods for identifying and mitigating bias in artificial intelligence sys- tems; and (C) safety and robustness, including assur- ance, verification, validation, security, and control. (c) Technology transfer In carrying out the program under subsection (a), the Secretary shall support technology transfer of artificial intelligence systems for the benefit of society and United States economic competitiveness. (d) Facility use and upgrades In carrying out the program under subsection (a), the Secretary shall— (1) make available high-performance com- puting infrastructure at national laboratories; (2) make any upgrades necessary to enhance the use of existing computing facilities for ar- tificial intelligence systems, including up- grades to hardware; (3) establish new computing capabilities nec- essary to manage data and conduct high per- formance computing that enables the use of artificial intelligence systems; and (4) maintain and improve, as needed, net- working infrastructure, data input and output mechanisms, and data analysis, storage, and service capabilities. (e) Report on ethics statements Not later than 6 months after publication of the study described in section 9451(d)(1)(C) of this title, the Secretary shall report to Congress on options for requiring an ethics or risk state- ment as part of all or a subset of applications for research activities funded by the Depart- ment of Energy and performed at Department of Energy national laboratories and user facilities. (f) Risk management The Secretary shall review agency policies for risk management in artificial intelligence re- lated projects and issue as necessary policies and principles that are consistent with the framework developed under section 278h–1(c) of this title (as added by section 5301 of this divi- sion). (g) Data privacy and sharing The Secretary shall review agency policies for data sharing with other public and private sec- tor organizations and issue as necessary policies and principles that are consistent with the standards and guidelines submitted under sec- tion 278h–1(e) of this title (as added by section 5301 of this division). In addition, the Secretary shall establish a streamlined mechanism for ap- proving research projects or partnerships that require sharing sensitive public or private data with the Department. (h) Partnerships with other Federal agencies The Secretary may request, accept, and pro- vide funds from other Federal departments and agencies, State, United States territory, local, or Tribal government agencies, private sector for-profit entities, and nonprofit entities, to be available to the extent provided by appropria- tions Acts, to support a research project or part- nership carried out under this section. The Sec- retary may not give any special consideration to any agency or entity in return for a donation. (i) Stakeholder engagement In carrying out the activities authorized in this section, the Secretary shall— (1) collaborate with a range of stakeholders including small businesses, institutes of high- er education, industry, and the National Lab- oratories; (2) leverage the collective body of knowledge from existing artificial intelligence and ma- chine learning research; and (3) engage with other Federal agencies, re- search communities, and potential users of in- formation produced under this section. (j) Definitions In this section: (1) Secretary The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary of Energy. (2) Department The term ‘‘Department’’ means the Depart- ment of Energy. (3) National laboratory The term ‘‘national laboratory’’ has the meaning given such term in section 15801 of title 42. (4) Eligible entities The term ‘‘eligible entities’’ means— (A) an institution of higher education; (B) a National Laboratory; (C) a Federal research agency; (D) a State research agency; (E) a nonprofit research organization; (F) a private sector entity; or (G) a consortium of 2 or more entities de- scribed in subparagraphs (A) through (F). (k) Authorization of appropriations There are authorized to be appropriated to the Department to carry out this section— (1) $200,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; Page 2598 TITLE 15—COMMERCE AND TRADE § 9462 (2) $214,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; (3) $228,980,000 for fiscal year 2023; (4) $245,000,000 for fiscal year 2024; and (5) $262,160,000 for fiscal year 2025. (Pub. L. 116–283, div. E, title LV, § 5501, Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4545.) Editorial Notes REFERENCES IN TEXT Section 5301 of this division, referred to in subsecs. (f) and (g), means section 5301 of div. E of Pub. L. 116–283, Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4536. § 9462. Veterans’ health initiative (a) Purposes The purposes of this section are to advance Department of Energy expertise in artificial in- telligence and high-performance computing in order to improve health outcomes for veteran populations by— (1) supporting basic research through the ap- plication of artificial intelligence, high-per- formance computing, modeling and simula- tion, machine learning, and large-scale data analytics to identify and solve outcome-de- fined challenges in the health sciences; (2) maximizing the impact of the Depart- ment of Veterans Affairs’ health and genomics data housed at the National Laboratories, as well as data from other sources, on science, in- novation, and health care outcomes through the use and advancement of artificial intel- ligence and high-performance computing capa- bilities of the Department; (3) promoting collaborative research through the establishment of partnerships to improve data sharing between Federal agencies, Na- tional Laboratories, institutions of higher education, and nonprofit institutions; (4) establishing multiple scientific com- puting user facilities to house and provision available data to foster transformational out- comes; and (5) driving the development of technology to improve artificial intelligence, high-perform- ance computing, and networking relevant to mission applications of the Department, in- cluding modeling, simulation, machine learn- ing, and advanced data analytics. (b) Veterans health research and development (1) In general The Secretary of Energy (in this section re- ferred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall establish and carry out a research program in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, focused on the development of tools to solve large-scale data analytics and management challenges associated with veteran’s healthcare, and to support the efforts of the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify po- tential health risks and challenges utilizing data on long-term healthcare, health risks, and genomic data collected from veteran popu- lations. The Secretary shall carry out this program through a competitive, merit-re- viewed process, and consider applications from National Laboratories, institutions of higher education, multi-institutional collaborations, and other appropriate entities. (2) Program components In carrying out the program established under paragraph (1), the Secretary may— (A) conduct basic research in modeling and simulation, machine learning, large-scale data analytics, and predictive analysis in order to develop novel or optimized algo- rithms for prediction of disease treatment and recovery; (B) develop methods to accommodate large data sets with variable quality and scale, and to provide insight and models for com- plex systems; (C) develop new approaches and maximize the use of algorithms developed through ar- tificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, natural language processing, mod- eling and simulation, and develop new algo- rithms suitable for high-performance com- puting systems and large biomedical data sets; (D) advance existing and construct new data enclaves capable of securely storing data sets provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and other sources; and (E) promote collaboration and data shar- ing between National Laboratories, research entities, and user facilities of the Depart- ment by providing the necessary access and secure data transfer capabilities. (3) Coordination In carrying out the program established under paragraph (1), the Secretary is author- ized— (A) to enter into memoranda of under- standing in order to carry out reimbursable agreements with the Department of Vet- erans Affairs and other entities in order to maximize the effectiveness of Department research and development to improve vet- erans’ healthcare; (B) to consult with the Department of Vet- erans Affairs and other Federal agencies as appropriate; and (C) to ensure that data storage meets all privacy and security requirements estab- lished by the Department of Veterans Af- fairs, and that access to data is provided in accordance with relevant Department of Veterans Affairs data access policies, includ- ing informed consent. (4) Report Not later than 2 years after December 27, 2020, the Secretary shall submit to the Com- mittee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate, and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Vet- erans’ Affairs of the House of Representatives, a report detailing the effectiveness of— (A) the interagency coordination between each Federal agency involved in the research program carried out under this subsection; (B) collaborative research achievements of the program; and (C) potential opportunities to expand the technical capabilities of the Department.