119-s2081

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2081 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 2081

 To establish immunity from civil liability for certain artificial 
 intelligence developers, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 June 12, 2025

 Ms. Lummis introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
 referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To establish immunity from civil liability for certain artificial 
 intelligence developers, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Responsible Innovation and Safe 
Expertise Act of 2025'' or the ``RISE Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) Artificial intelligence systems have rapidly advanced 
 in capability and are increasingly being deployed across 
 professional services, including healthcare, law, finance, and 
 other sectors critical to the economy.

    (2) Industry leaders have publicly acknowledged the 
 development of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence 
 systems, with some discussing the potential for artificial 
 general intelligence and superintelligence that could 
 fundamentally reshape the society of the United States.

    (3) The current lack of clarity regarding liability for 
 artificial intelligence errors creates uncertainty that impedes 
 the responsible integration of these beneficial technologies 
 into professional services and economic activity.

    (4) Many artificial intelligence systems operate with 
 limited transparency regarding their capabilities, limitations, 
 and default instructions, making it difficult for professional 
 users to assess appropriate use cases and for legal systems to 
 fairly allocate responsibility when errors occur.

    (5) Learned professionals who utilize artificial 
 intelligence tools in serving clients have professional 
 obligations to understand the capabilities and limitations of 
 the tools they employ, requiring access to clear information 
 about system specifications and performance characteristics.

    (6) Establishing clear standards for artificial 
 intelligence transparency, coupled with appropriate liability 
 frameworks, will promote responsible innovation while ensuring 
 that the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence systems 
 are properly understood and managed as these technologies 
 continue to advance.

    (7) The development of artificial intelligence systems that 
 may significantly impact the future of human civilization 
 warrants a governance approach that balances innovation 
 incentives with robust transparency requirements and 
 appropriate allocation of responsibility among developers, 
 professional users, and other stakeholders.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

 In this Act:

    (1) Artificial intelligence.--The term ``artificial 
 intelligence'' has the meaning given the term in 

section 5002 
 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 
 (15 U.S.C. 9401).

    (2) Client.--The term ``client'' means a person that--
        (A) engages the services of a learned professional;
        (B) relies upon the expertise, judgment, and advice 
 of the learned professional; and
            (C) has a relationship with the learned 
 professional that is governed by professional 
 standards, codes of conduct, or regulations.

    (3) Developer.--The term ``developer'' means a person 
 that--
        (A) creates, designs, programs, trains, modifies, 
 or substantially contributes to the creation or 
 modification of an artificial intelligence product;
        (B) exercises control over the design 
 specifications, functionality, capabilities, 
 limitations, or intended uses of an artificial 
 intelligence product; or
            (C) markets, distributes, licenses, or makes 
 available an artificial intelligence product under 
 their own name, brand, or trademark, regardless of 
 whether the person creates the original underlying 
 technology of the artificial intelligence product.

    (4) Error.--The term ``error'' means--
        (A) any output, action, recommendation, or material 
 omission by an artificial intelligence product that is 
 false, misleading, fabricated, deceptive, or incomplete 
 in a manner that a reasonable developer could foresee 
 would cause harm; or
        (B) any failure of an artificial intelligence 
 product to perform a function or task that the 
 artificial intelligence product expressly or implicitly 
 represents itself as capable of performing.

    (5) Learned professional.--The term ``learned 
 professional'' means an individual who--
        (A) possesses specialized education, training, 
 knowledge, or skill in a profession;
        (B) is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized 
 by an appropriate Federal or State authority to 
 practice in that profession;
            (C) is bound by professional standards, ethical 
 obligations, and a duty of care to clients; and
            (D) exercises independent professional judgment 
 when using tools, including artificial intelligence 
 products, in the course of rendering professional 
 services.

    (6) Model card.--The term ``model card'' means a publicly 
 available technical document in which a developer describes, 
 consistent with industry standards and as rigorously as or more 
 rigorously than industry peers, the training data sources, 
 evaluation methodology, performance metrics, intended uses, 
 limitations, and risk mitigations, including detection, 
 evaluation, management, and safeguards against errors, of an 
 artificial intelligence product.

    (7) Model specification.--The term ``model 
 specification''--
        (A) means the text or other configuration 
 instructions of an artificial intelligence product--
            (i) supplied by a developer;
            (ii) that establish the intended base 
 behavior, tone, constraints, or goals of the 
 artificial intelligence product; and
            (iii) that materially influence the outputs 
 of the artificial intelligence product across 
 users or sessions, including the system prompt 
 provided to the model before engaging with user 
 queries; and
        (B) includes--
            (i) the system prompt and any other text or 
 images that the artificial intelligence product 
 receives that are not visible to the end user;
            (ii) any constitution or analogous guiding 
 document used when training or fine-tuning of 
 an artificial intelligence product, including 
 in automated schemes in which an artificial 
 intelligence system trains another artificial 
 intelligence system; and
            (iii) the instructions, rubrics, or other 
 guidance provided to human raters or evaluators 
 of an artificial intelligence product the 
 feedback of whom is used to train or fine-tune 
 the artificial intelligence product.

SEC. 4. CONDITIONAL IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY FOR ARTIFICIAL 
 INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPERS.

    (a) Safe Harbor Eligibility.--A developer shall be immune from 
civil liability for errors generated by an artificial intelligence 
product when used by a learned professional in the course of providing 
professional services to a client if the developer--

    (1) prior to deployment of the artificial intelligence 
 product, publicly releases and continuously maintains--
        (A) the model card for the artificial intelligence 
 product; and
        (B) the model specification for the artificial 
 intelligence product, which may include redactions--
            (i) only relating to information that would 
 reveal trade secrets unrelated to the safety of 
 the artificial intelligence product; and
            (ii) only if the developer furnishes 
 contemporaneously with each redaction a written 
 justification for the redaction identifying the 
 basis for withholding the information as a 
 trade secret; and

    (2) provides clear and conspicuous documentation to learned 
 professionals describing the known limitations, failure modes, 
 and appropriate domains of use for the artificial intelligence 
 product.

    (b) Scope of Immunity.--The immunity provided under subsection

    (a) shall be conferred to a developer only for acts or omissions that do 
not constitute recklessness or willful misconduct by the developer.
            (c) Duty To Update.--Immunity under subsection

    (a) relating to an 
artificial intelligence product shall not apply to a developer--

    (1) that does not update the model card, model 
 specification, and documentation with respect to the artificial 
 intelligence product as described in subsection

    (a)

    (1) by the 
 date that is 30 days after the date on which the developer--
        (A) deploys a new version of the artificial 
 intelligence product; or
        (B) discovers a new and material failure mode 
 affecting the artificial intelligence product; and

    (2) of which the failure to make an update described in 
 paragraph

    (1) by the applicable date described in that 
 paragraph proximately causes a harm occurring after that date.
            (d) Preemption.--

    (1) Express preemption.--This section shall apply to any 
 claim arising under State law against a developer for an error 
 arising from the use of an artificial intelligence product by a 
 learned professional in providing professional services if the 
 developer is immune from civil liability under subsection

    (a) .

    (2) Claims not preempted.--Nothing in this section shall 
 apply to a claim arising under State law against a developer 
 based on fraud, knowing misrepresentation, or conduct outside 
 the scope of professional use of an artificial intelligence 
 product by a learned professional.

SEC. 5. PRESERVATION OF OTHER IMMUNITIES AND PRIVILEGES.

 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any immunity from 
civil liability established by Federal or State law or available at 
common law that is not related to the immunity established under 

section 4

    (a) .

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.

 This Act--

    (1) shall take effect on December 1, 2025; and

    (2) shall apply to acts or omissions occurring on or after 
 the date described in paragraph

    (1) .
 <all>