North Carolina SB 735: Study GenX Health Impacts.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 735

Short Title: AI Innovation Trust Fund. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Salvador, Garrett, and Murdock (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
March 26, 2025
*S735-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO ENACT THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INNOVATION TRUST FUND. 2
Whereas, recognizing the rapidly evolving nature of artificial intelligence and the 3
importance of responsible innovation, the General Assembly intends this Act to establish an 4
exploratory, iterative approach to AI governance, inviting stakeholder input and encouraging 5
collaborative development of appropriate and proportionate AI regulations; Now, therefore, 6
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 7
SECTION 1. Article 10 of Chapter 143B of the General Statutes is amended by 8
adding a new Part to read: 9
"Part 18A. Artificial Intelligence Innovation. 10
"§ 143B-472.83A. Artificial Intelligence Innovation Trust Fund. 11
(a) Fund. – There is established a special, nonreverting fund to be known as the North 12
Carolina Artificial Intelligence Innovation Trust Fund. The Secretary of Commerce shall be the 13
trustee of the fund and shall expend money from the fund to (i) provide grants or other financial 14
assistance to companies developing or deploying artificial intelligence models in key industry 15
sectors or (ii) establish or promote artificial intelligence entrepreneurship programs, which may 16
include partnerships with research institutions in the State or other entrepreneur support 17
organizations. The fund shall consist of appropriations to the Department of Commerce to be 18
allocated to the fund, interest earned on money in the fund, and any other grants, premiums, gifts, 19
reimbursements or other contributions received by the State from any source for or in support of 20
the purposes described in this subsection. Funds in the fund are hereby appropriated to the 21
Department for the purposes set forth in this section, and, except as otherwise expressly provided, 22
the provisions of this section apply to persons receiving a grant or assistance from the fund. Funds 23
provided under this Part shall not support projects involving artificial intelligence intended for 24
mass surveillance infringing constitutional rights, unlawful social scoring, discriminatory 25
profiling based on protected characteristics, or generating deceptive digital content intended for 26
fraudulent or electoral interference purposes. 27
(b) Definitions. – The following definitions apply in this section: 28
(1) Advanced persistent threat. – An adversary with sophisticated levels of 29
expertise and significant resources that allow it, through the use of multiple 30
different attack vectors including, but not limited to, cyber, physical or 31
deception, to generate opportunities to achieve objectives including, but not 32
limited to, (i) establishing or extending its presence within the information 33
technology infrastructure of an organization for the purpose of exfiltrating 34
information; (ii) undermining or impeding critical aspects of a mission, 35

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 735-First Edition
program or organization; or (iii) placing itself in a position to do so in the 1
future. 2
(2) Artificial intelligence. – An engineered or machine-based system that varies 3
in its level of autonomy and which may, for explicit or implicit objectives, 4
infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that may influence 5
physical or virtual environments. 6
(3) Artificial intelligence safety incident. – An incident that demonstrably 7
increases the risk of a critical harm occurring by means of any of the 8
following: 9
a. A covered model or covered model derivative autonomously engaging 10
in behavior other than at the request of a user. 11
b. Theft, misappropriation, malicious use, inadvertent release, 12
unauthorized access or escape of the model weights of a covered 13
model or covered model derivative. 14
c. The critical failure of technical or administrative controls, including 15
controls limiting the ability to modify a covered model or covered 16
model derivative. 17
d. Unauthorized use of a covered model or covered model derivative to 18
cause or materially enable critical harm. 19
(4) Computing cluster. – A set of machines transitively connected by data center 20
networking of over 100 gigabits per second that has a theoretical maximum 21
computing capacity of at least 10
to the power of 20 integer or floating-point 22
operations per second and can be used for training artificial intelligence. 23
(4a) Covered entity. – The legally responsible organization, corporation, or entity 24
that directly oversees and controls the development, deployment, and ongoing 25
operations of a covered model or covered model derivative, including 26
responsibility for compliance with obligations under this Part 27
(5) Covered model.