S. 1776: Artificial Intelligence for the Military Act of 2021

117th Congress · introduced 2021-05-20 · Armed Forces and National Security · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services.

AI-relatedfederal

Follow this bill, step by step

Where it came from: introduced 2021-05-20 · official record
Who proposed it: Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Artificial Intelligence for the Military Act of 2021

Plain summary

Artificial Intelligence for the Military Act of 2021 This bill requires the implementation of training and education related to emerging technologies and artificial intelligence for certain military personnel. The bill requires expansion of the curriculum for military junior leader education to incorporate training material related to focuses that include problem definition and curation and a conceptual understanding of the artificial intelligence life cycle. Such training and education should include the use of existing artificial intelligence-enabled systems and tools. The Department of Defense (DOD) must ensure that the curriculum for professional military education is revised in each of the military services to incorporate periodic courses on militarily significant emerging technologies. DOD must establish a short course on emerging technologies for general and flag officers and senior executive-level civilian leaders. The course must be taught on an iterative, two-year cycle and address the most recent and relevant technologies and the application of these technologies to military and business outcomes in DOD. DOD must ensure that the military services code appropriate billets to be filled by emerging technology-qualified officers and develop a process for qualification of officers in emerging technologies. The process for qualifying officers for emerging technology-coded billets must be modeled on a streamlined version of the joint qualification process and may include credit for serving in emerging technology-focused (1) fellowships, (2) talent exchanges, (3) government positions, and (4) education courses.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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A “Nay” vote

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What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Artificial Intelligence for the Military Act of 2021

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)

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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH] · 1 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (3)

Appropriation: Money a legislature sets aside by law for a specific purpose. Government agencies may spend public money only as it has been appropriated.
Artificial intelligence (AI): Computer systems that do tasks that usually need human judgment, such as recognizing images, understanding language or making predictions. Laws about AI often cover how it is used, tested, disclosed or limited.
Bill: A proposed law. It becomes law only if it passes the legislature and is signed by the president or governor (or a veto is overridden).

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-117s1776.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/117/s>

Record fed-us-cong117-s1776 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong117 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong117