S. 1633 — TEST AI Act of 2025

This section provides definitions for terms used in the Act, including (1) "artificial intelligence system" (as defined in 15 U.S.C. 9401(3)); (2) "covered foreign country" (i.e., China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran); (3) "Director" (i.e., the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology); (4) "Institute" (i.e., the National Institute of Standards and Technology); (5) "testbed" (i.e., a facility or mechanism for testing tools or technologies); and (6) "Working Group" (as established under section 3(c)(1)).

This section establishes a pilot program, to be carried out by the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in coordination with the Secretary of Energy and after consultation with an Artificial Intelligence Testing Working Group, to assess the feasibility of developing measurement standards for evaluating artificial intelligence (AI) systems used by federal agencies through testbeds that advance measurement science iteratively with stakeholder review. The section further requires (1) the Secretaries of Commerce and Energy to enter a memorandum of understanding within 180 days of enactment to enable NIST access to Department of Energy resources, with reassessments every two years beginning two years after pilot establishment; (2) the Secretary of Commerce to establish the 10-member Working Group (chaired by Commerce, Energy, and NIST designees, plus private sector and academic representatives excluding covered foreign nationals) within 90 days of the memorandum, which must develop and publicly post an AI measurement standards strategy within one year identifying needs for reliability, performance, capability, interpretability, security, privacy, data bias, and applicability bounds, plus a development blueprint, initial applications, and pilot metrics; (3) NIST to develop testbeds within two years of enactment per the strategy, hiring necessary experts; and (4) NIST to report to Congress within 180 days of the first testbed demonstration on findings, program revisions and resource needs, and recommended legislative or administrative actions.