Bill > S3809

This bill, titled the "AI Grand Challenges Act of 2026," authorizes the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a program to award competitive prizes for artificial intelligence (AI) research and development aimed at solving significant, well-defined problems, referred to as "grand challenges." These challenges will span various critical areas such as national security, health, energy, and cybersecurity, as well as cross-cutting AI issues like safety and bias mitigation. The NSF Director will consult with other federal agencies and seek public input to identify and select these challenges, with specific problem statements, success metrics, and validation protocols to be published on Challenge.gov, a government website managed by the General Services Administration (GSA). Notably, the bill mandates a specific prize competition focused on AI-enabled cancer breakthroughs, requiring at least $10 million in prize money for winners in this category. The program will leverage existing prize authority under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, and prize winners, if private entities, must be based in the U.S., while individual winners must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The NSF Director can accept funds from various sources to support these competitions but cannot let such funding influence prize decisions. The bill also requires the NSF Director to report to Congress on winning submissions and program activities, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy will coordinate federal agencies to publish relevant datasets for grand challenges.

Transportation and Infrastructure

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3809/all-info