Senator Mike Rounds wants the US to treat AI adoption like a race it can’t afford to lose. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on May 13, the South Dakota Republican argued that the country must accelerate its use of artificial intelligence to stay ahead of global adversaries across military, economic, and security fronts.
The hearing, which featured Secretary of Energy Chris Wright among its witnesses, served as a stage for Rounds to frame AI not as a futuristic ambition but as a present-tense strategic necessity. His message was blunt: the US needs to move faster, or risk ceding ground to rivals, particularly China.
From defense hawk to AI caucus co-chair
Rounds has co-chaired the Senate AI Caucus since at least 2024, a bipartisan group that has quietly become one of the more consequential forums for AI policy on Capitol Hill.
In July 2025, Rounds reintroduced the Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act, a bipartisan bill designed to create regulatory innovation labs where financial firms can test AI-driven products without immediately running into the full weight of existing regulations.
