Bill > HR7434

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. The program, known as the "AI Grand Challenges Program," will utilize existing prize competition authorities to stimulate innovation in AI that addresses specific, measurable, and significant challenges across various sectors, including national security, cybersecurity, health, energy, environment, transportation, and more, as well as cross-cutting AI challenges like safety, privacy, and bias mitigation. The NSF Director will consult with other federal agencies and seek public input to identify and select these grand challenges, defining clear problem statements, success metrics, and validation protocols for each competition, which will be published on Challenge.gov, a government website managed by the General Services Administration. Notably, the bill mandates at least one grand challenge focused on AI-enabled cancer breakthroughs, with a minimum prize award of $10 million for winners in that specific competition. Prize winners must be U.S. entities or citizens, and judges can include individuals from the private sector. The bill also allows for prize amounts to exceed $50 million under certain conditions and permits the NSF Director to accept funding from various government and private entities to support the program, though such contributions will not influence award decisions. Finally, the bill requires the NSF Director to submit reports to Congress on winning submissions and program activities, and to make biennial reports publicly accessible.

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https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7434/all-info