Senate AI Lead: AI to be Embedded in Every Bill Going Forward

Senate AI Caucus Co-Chair Mike Rounds, R-S.D., predicted on Tuesday that artificial intelligence (AI) will be embedded in every piece of legislation that passes through Congress in the coming years.

With so few days left in the legislative calendar, Sen. Rounds said he expects lawmakers to start to tack on their AI bills to critical pieces of legislation – like the National Defense and Authorization Act (NDAA).

“There’s a huge amount of AI legislation that’s in the pipeline right now. Our goal is to do this in a bipartisan fashion so that it stands the test of time,” Sen. Rounds said during POLITICO’s AI & Tech Summit on Sept. 17.

“I think you’re going to find artificial intelligence legislation embedded in almost every single piece of legislation that passes the House and the Senate in the coming years – not just one or two pieces, but literally dozens of pieces,” the senator said.

“And it’s going to come from committees – all the way across from one end to the other – whether you’re talking about the Rules Committee, the Homeland Security, whether you’re talking Armed Services, whether you’re talking Appropriations Committee, whether you’re talking the Banking Committee,” he said. “All of them will have AI or AI-focused legislation built into their major pieces of legislation.”

The Senate AI lead said he expects the NDAA to be “chock full” of different ideas on AI and the promotion of AI within the Department of Defense for years to come.

Earlier this month, Sen. Rounds unveiled a package of bipartisan AI legislation, including two NDAA amendments.

The senator said that AI amendments will also be found within appropriations, healthcare, and agriculture legislation.

“All of those are the types of things that we’re going to be seeing occurring – some of them are going to occur this year, more are going to be occurring in the next couple of years. We’ve set this up so that it’s not a one shot, and then we’re done,” Sen. Rounds said. “This is going to be an ongoing development of a technology that’s not going to go away, and it’s going to continue to evolve.”

“Our ability to regulate and to promote and to maintain, and for the defense of our country, to be able to keep it right here, is going to be more than just between now and the election or between now and the end of the year,” Sen. Rounds concluded. “What we’re trying to do is to set this up for success year after year after year moving forward.”