# 119-s-3809: AI Grand Challenges Act of 2026

119-s-3809, AI Grand Challenges Act of 2026, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-09-10).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3809
- As of: 2026-09-10
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-3809
- Congress: 119
- Title: AI Grand Challenges Act of 2026
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-02-09
- Sponsor: Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Cosponsors: 2
- Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-09-10

## Summary

**This bill would create the __AI Grand Challenges Program__ at the National Science Foundation to fund large prize competitions that push ambitious AI research, development, and commercialization across many sectors. It would also require at least one AI-focused cancer challenge with a minimum $10 million cash prize per winner.** - Researchers and companies: Would fund competitive prize competitions with cash awards of at least $1 million per winner to accelerate AI R&D and commercialization. Private entity winners must be U.S.-incorporated with a U.S. primary place of business and individual winners must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. - Cancer research and patients: Would require at least one grand challenge for AI-enabled cancer detection, diagnostics, treatments, or other innovations that increase quality-adjusted life years and award at least $10 million per winner. - Agencies and the public: Would require the NSF Director to publish problem statements, clear targets, success metrics, and validation protocols on Challenge.gov and to coordinate dataset publication with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to support foundational science and AI innovation.

## Cosponsors (2)

- Sen. Rounds, Mike [R-SD] (R-SD), 2026-02-09T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Heinrich, Martin [D-NM] (D-NM), 2026-02-09T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Big AI prize for cancer breakthroughs: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require NSF, working with OSTP and NIH, to create at least one AI grand challenge focused on major cancer breakthroughs within 1 year. The challenge would target AI innovations in detection, diagnosis, treatment, therapeutics, or other advances to increase quality-adjuste…
- New NSF AI prize program: benefit, medium. If enacted, the bill would require the NSF Director to set up an AI Grand Challenges Program within 12 months. The program would run competitive prize contests and post active competitions and available awards to Challenge.gov. Winners would receive at least $1,000,000 in cash each, and NSF could a…
- Federal AI research datasets published: benefit, low. If enacted, the bill would require the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate Federal science funders to identify and publish datasets for grand challenges. The datasets would target foundational scientific problems that AI can help solve. The goal would be to give researchers better…

## Related bills

- 119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026
- 119-s-5283: Momnibus Act
- 119-s-1507: Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025
- 119-s-3257: John A. Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act
- 119-s-4504: Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026
- 119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026

## Sources
- [119-s-3809 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3809)

## Related
- [119-s-5066: Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5066)
- [119-s-5283: Momnibus Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5283)
- [119-s-1507: Agriculture Resilience Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1507)
- [119-s-3257: John A. Hauser Mental Health in Aviation Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3257)
- [119-s-4504: Full-Service Community School Expansion Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4504)
- [119-s-3990: PrEP Access and Coverage Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3990)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-3809 (as of 2026-09-10).