II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4236 

To authorize the Director of the National Science Foundation to identify 

grand challenges and award competitive prizes for artificial intelligence 

research and development. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 1, 2024 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mr. ROUNDS, and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To authorize the Director of the National Science Foundation to identify grand challenges and award competitive 

prizes for artificial intelligence research and development. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘AI Grand Challenges 

5 Act of 2024’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PRIZE COMPETITIONS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTEL2 LIGENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. 

3 (a) DEFINITION.—Except as otherwise expressly pro4 vided, in this section the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Di5 rector of the National Science Foundation. 

6 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 12 months 

8 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director, 

9 in coordination with the Interagency Committee es10 tablished under section 5103 of the National Artifi11 cial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 

12 9413), shall establish a program to award prizes, 

13 utilizing the authorities and processes established 

14 under section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Tech15 nology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719), to 

16 eligible participants as determined by the Director 

17 pursuant to subsection (e) to stimulate artificial in18 telligence research, development, and commercializa19 tion that solves or advances specific, well-defined, 

20 and measurable grand challenges in 1 or more of the 

21 following categories: 

22 (A) National security. 

23 (B) Cybersecurity. 

24 (C) Health. 

25 (D) Energy. 

26 (E) Environment. 


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1 (F) Transportation. 

2 (G) Agriculture and rural development. 

3 (H) Education and workforce training. 

4 (I) Manufacturing. 

5 (J) Space and aerospace. 

6 (K) Quantum computing, including molec7 ular modeling and simulation. 

8 (L) Materials science. 

9 (M) Supply chain resilience. 

10 (N) Disaster preparedness. 

11 (O) Natural resources management. 

12 (P) Cross cutting challenges in artificial 

13 intelligence, including robustness, 

14 interpretability, explainability, transparency, 

15 safety, privacy, content provenance, and bias 

16 mitigation. 

17 (2) DESIGNATION.—The grand challenges and 

18 prize competition program established under para19 graph (1) shall be known as the ‘‘AI Grand Chal20 lenges Program’’. 

21 (3) ROTATORS.—Participants in the Rotator 

22 Program of the National Science Foundation may 

23 support the development and implementation of the 

24 AI Grand Challenges Program. 


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1 (c) GRAND CHALLENGES SELECTION AND GRAND

2 CHALLENGES INFORMATION.— 

3 (1) IN GENERAL.— 

4 (A) CONSULTATION ON IDENTIFICATION

5 AND SELECTION.—The Director shall consult 

6 with the Director of the Office of Science and 

7 Technology Policy, the Director of the National 

8 Institute of Standards and Technology, the Di9 rector of the Defense Advanced Research 

10 Projects Agency, the heads of relevant Federal 

11 agencies, and the National Artificial Intelligence 

12 Advisory Committee to identify and select arti13 ficial intelligence research and development 

14 grand challenges in which eligible participants 

15 will compete to solve or advance for prize 

16 awards under subsection (b). 

17 (B) PUBLIC INPUT ON IDENTIFICATION.— 

18 The Director shall also seek public input on the 

19 identification of artificial intelligence research 

20 and development grand challenges. 

21 (2) PROBLEM STATEMENTS; SUCCESS

22 METRICS.—For each grand challenge selected under 

23 paragraph (1) and the grand challenge under para24 graph (3), the Director shall— 


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1 (A) establish a specific and well-defined 

2 grand challenge problem statement and ensure 

3 that such problem statement is published on the 

4 National Science Foundation website linking 

5 out to relevant prize competition listings on the 

6 website Challenge.gov that is managed by the 

7 General Services Administration; and 

8 (B) establish and publish on the website 

9 Challenge.gov clear targets, success metrics, 

10 and validation protocols for the prize competi11 tions designed to address each grand challenge, 

12 in order to provide specific benchmarks that 

13 will be used to evaluate submissions to the prize 

14 competition. 

15 (3) GRAND CHALLENGE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTEL16 LIGENCE-ENABLED CANCER BREAKTHROUGHS.— 

17 (A) REQUIRED PRIZE COMPETITION.—Not 

18 later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 

19 this Act, the Director, in consultation with the 

20 Director of the Office of Science and Tech21 nology Policy and the Director of the National 

22 Institutes of Health, shall establish not less 

23 than 1 grand challenge in which eligible partici24 pants will compete in a prize competition to 

25 solve or advance solutions for prize awards 


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1 under subsection (b) that seek to advance med2 ical breakthroughs to address 1 or more of the 

3 most lethal forms of cancer and related 

4 comorbidities. The grand challenge shall relate 

5 to detection, diagnostics, treatments, thera6 peutics, or other innovations in artificial intel7 ligence to increase the total quality-adjusted life 

8 years of those affected or likely to be affected 

9 by cancer. 

10 (B) PRIZE AMOUNT.—In carrying out the 

11 prize competition under subparagraph (A), the 

12 Director shall award not less than $10,000,000 

13 in cash prize awards to each winner. 

14 (4) AMBITIOUS AND ACHIEVABLE GOALS.— 

15 Grand challenges selected under paragraph (1) and 

16 the grand challenge under paragraph (3) shall be 

17 ambitious but achievable goals that utilize science, 

18 technology, and innovation to solve or advance solu19 tions to problems to benefit the United States. 

20 (d) ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION.—The Director may 

21 consult with, and incorporate effective practices from, 

22 other entities that have developed successful large-scale 

23 technology demonstration prize competitions, including 

24 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Na25 tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, other FedVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:05 Jun 01, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4236.IS S4236

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1 eral agencies, private sector enterprises, and nonprofit or2 ganizations, in the development and implementation of the 

3 AI Grand Challenges Program and related prize competi4 tions, including on the requirements under subsection (e). 

5 (e) REQUIREMENTS.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall develop 

7 requirements for— 

8 (A) the prize competition process, includ9 ing eligibility criteria for participants, con10 sistent with the requirements under paragraph 

11 (2); and 

12 (B) testing, judging, and verification pro13 cedures for submissions to receive a prize award 

14 under the AI Grand Challenges Program. 

15 (2) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENT AND JUDG16 ING.— 

17 (A) ELIGIBILITY.—In accordance with the 

18 requirement described in section 24(g)(3) of the 

19 Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 

20 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(g)(3)), a recipient of a 

21 prize award under the AI Grand Challenges 

22 Program— 

23 (i) that is a private entity shall be in24 corporated in and maintain a primary 

25 place of business in the United States; and 


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1 (ii) who is an individual, whether par2 ticipating singly or in a group, shall be a 

3 citizen or permanent resident of the United 

4 States. 

5 (B) JUDGES.—In accordance with section 

6 24(k) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology In7 novation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(k)), a 

8 judge of a prize competition under the AI 

9 Grand Challenges Program may be an indi10 vidual from the private sector. 

11 (f) PRIZE AMOUNT.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the AI 

13 Grand Challenges Program, the Director— 

14 (A) shall award not less than $1,000,000 

15 in cash prize awards to each winner of the prize 

16 competitions, except as provided in subsection 

17 (c)(3); and 

18 (B) may also utilize non-cash awards. 

19 (2) LARGER AWARDS.—The Director may 

20 award prizes under the AI Grand Challenges Pro21 gram that are more than $50,000,000, pursuant to 

22 the requirements under section 24(m)(4)(A) of the 

23 Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 

24 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(m)(4)(A)). 

25 (g) FUNDING.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—In accordance with section 

2 24(m)(1) of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Inno3 vation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719(m)(1)), the Di4 rector may request and accept funds from other 

5 Federal agencies, State, United States territory, 

6 local, or Tribal government agencies, for-profit enti7 ties, and nonprofit entities to support the AI Grand 

8 Challenges Program. 

9 (2) PROHIBITION ON CONSIDERATION FOR SUP10 PORT.—The Director may not consider any support 

11 provided by an agency or entity under paragraph (1) 

12 in determining the winners of prize awards under 

13 subsection (b). 

14 (h) REPORTS.— 

15 (1) NOTIFICATION OF WINNING SUBMISSION.— 

16 Not later than 60 days after the date on which a 

17 prize is awarded under the AI Grand Challenges 

18 Program, the Director shall submit to the Com19 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of 

20 the Senate, the Committee on Science, Space, and 

21 Technology of the House of Representatives, and 

22 other relevant committees of Congress a report that 

23 describes the winning submission to the prize com24 petition and its benefits to the United States. 

25 (2) BIENNIAL REPORT.— 


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1 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years 

2 after the date of enactment of this Act, and bi3 ennially thereafter, the Director shall submit to 

4 the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

5 Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on 

6 Science, Space, and Technology of the House of 

7 Representatives, and other relevant committees 

8 of Congress a report that includes— 

9 (i) a description of the activities car10 ried out under this Act; 

11 (ii) a description of the active com12 petitions and the results of completed com13 petitions under the AI Grand Challenges 

14 Program; and 

15 (iii) efforts to provide information to 

16 the public about the AI Grand Challenges 

17 Program to encourage participation. 

18 (B) PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY.—The Director 

19 shall make the biennial report required under 

20 subparagraph (A) publicly accessible, including 

21 by posting the biennial report on the website of 

22 the National Science Foundation in an easily 

23 accessible location. 

24 (i) ACCESSIBILITY.—In carrying out the AI Grand 

25 Challenges Program, the Director shall post the active 


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1 prize competitions and available prize awards under sub2 section (b) to Challenge.gov after the grand challenges are 

3 selected and the prize competitions are designed pursuant 

4 to subsections (c) and (e) to ensure the prize competitions 

5 are widely accessible to eligible participants. 

Æ 


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