Jim Banks is a Republican United States Senator from Indiana. His AI-related activity in 2026 centers on competition with China: intellectual-property protection, open-weight model policy, and a statutory safe harbor for AI developers sharing security information.
Legislation
Banks is the sole cosponsor of the Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act (S. 5105), introduced by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) "for himself and Mr. Banks" on July 23, 2026 and referred to the Judiciary Committee (S. 5105 — Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act (bill text)). The bill would exempt from the antitrust laws both information sharing about defined AI security risks and agreements among developers to delay or limit AI release or development, the latter after written notice to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. In the sponsors' joint announcement Banks framed the bill as a matter of competition with China (Source: schiff.senate.gov). The bill returned to public discussion during the September 2026 debate over coordinated slowdowns (Coordinated slowdown proposals compared).
Letters
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made public July 9, 2026, Banks urged the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to counter Chinese companies' use of AI tools "to scrape U.S. patent applications and accelerate the theft of American intellectual property," highlighting biotechnology (Source: insideaipolicy.com). See Export Controls (AI).
On August 14, 2026 he released a letter to Christopher Phelan, chair-designate of the Council of Economic Advisers, urging the administration to create incentives for US companies to build open-weight models, to devise options to "limit dependence" on Chinese open-weight models, and to make it harder for Chinese firms to use American semiconductors. He wrote that "America cannot afford to see Chinese open models proliferate and burrow into the global economy only to be weaponized, like rare earths" (Source: reuters.com). See Open-Weight Frontier Models.
Relationships
- related: Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act (S. 5105) — cosponsor.
- related: Adam Schiff — sponsor of S. 5105.
- related: Open-Weight Frontier Models, Export Controls (AI), AI Antitrust