Todd Young is a Republican United States senator from Indiana. He has served in the Senate since 2017, after representing Indiana's 9th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017 (Source: congress.gov). In AI policy he is the sponsor of the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, which would place the Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation in statute, and was one of the four members of the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group.
Background
Congress.gov lists Young, born in 1972, as a member of the House for the 112th through 114th Congresses and of the Senate for the 115th through 119th (Source: congress.gov).
AI legislation
Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act
Young introduced S. 3952, the Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026, on February 26, 2026 "for himself, Ms. Cantwell, Mrs. Blackburn, and Mr. Hickenlooper." The bill would add a section 22B to the NIST Act establishing the Center for Artificial Intelligence Standards and Innovation within NIST, with a mission of helping the private sector and agencies develop "voluntary best practices for the robust assessment of artificial intelligence systems" and a rule of construction providing that nothing in the section gives the NIST Director enforcement authority not already in effect. It would also create a joint NIST–Department of Energy testbed program that includes a voluntary foundation-model test program, international standards coalitions that exclude China pending a WTO-compliance determination, a GAO report on regulatory impediments to AI innovation, a federal list of priority public datasets, and federal AI prize challenges. It was referred to the Commerce Committee, a star print was ordered on March 19, 2026, and as of September 17, 2026 it had not been marked up (Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026 — S. 3952 bill text (introduced February 26, 2026); Source: congress.gov).
The measure reintroduces S. 4178 of the 118th Congress, which Cantwell sponsored in April 2024 with Young as an original cosponsor and which the Commerce Committee reported on December 18, 2024 (Source: congress.gov). The Commerce Committee minority's release on the 2026 reintroduction describes the bill as building on "Sens. Cantwell and Young's original FUTURE of AI Act," which it credits with creating the National AI Advisory Committee, and quotes Young: "One of my top priorities for federal AI policy is to ensure these technologies are developed in a manner that reflects American values and supports U.S. innovation," and "I'm glad to introduce the Future of AI Innovation Act to maintain American leadership in the global race to advance AI" (Source: commerce.senate.gov).
In September 2026, as Commerce chair Ted Cruz sought a September 23 markup of AI legislation, the Washington Post reported that the roster "would likely include bipartisan legislation from Sens. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and Cantwell, called the 'Future of AI Innovation Act,'" according to one person familiar with the committee's plans (Source: washingtonpost.com). The committee's September 16 executive session did not include the bill (Source: commerce.senate.gov).
CREATE AI Act
Inside AI Policy reported on May 1, 2026 that Young had reintroduced the CREATE AI Act that week, a bill "codifying a popular National Science Foundation initiative" (Source: insideaipolicy.com).
Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group
Young was one of four members of the Bipartisan Senate AI Working Group, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). On May 15, 2024 the group released "Driving U.S. Innovation in Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence Policy in the United States Senate," which encourages at least $32 billion per year for non-defense AI innovation, the figure proposed by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (Source: mayerbrown.com).
National security and frontier AI risks
In a letter dated September 24, 2026 to Marco Rubio, addressed in his capacity as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Young asked that the National Security Council "coordinate a series of recurring roundtable discussions with frontier AI model developers, cybersecurity experts, relevant national security and intelligence officials, critical infrastructure representatives, and other appropriate private sector experts." He wrote that "Recent developments involving frontier AI models have further demonstrated the ability of advanced systems to circumvent safeguards, interact with external systems, and substantially enhance offensive cyber capabilities," and that the government "cannot assume that future autonomous or AI-enabled attacks will not target hospitals, electric grids, water systems, or other critical infrastructure." The letter lists five topics for the discussions: frontier capability advances creating national security or public safety risks, "including known incidents and near misses"; the capabilities of AI models developed in China and other foreign adversaries; secure mechanisms for voluntary reporting of AI security incidents and vulnerabilities to federal entities; research on mechanistic interpretability, functional assurance and other methods, including through secure federal test and evaluation environments; and concrete safeguards under existing executive authorities, with recommendations for any targeted legislation. It also asks for a classified briefing to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and other relevant committees. Copies went to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Walter "Jay" Clayton III, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross and NSA director Gen. Joshua M. Rudd (Letter from Sen. Todd Young to National Security Advisor Marco Rubio on frontier AI national security threats (September 2026); Source: young.senate.gov). Semafor, which received the letter first, described it as pressing the White House for more AI oversight (Source: semafor.com). Inside AI Policy's account described the request as asking Rubio to convene roundtables with national security, critical infrastructure and industry stakeholders (Source: insideaipolicy.com). See AI Incident Reporting.
Relationships
- related: Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026 (S. 3952) — sponsor of S. 3952 (2026); original cosponsor of the 2024 predecessor, S. 4178
- related: Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026 — S. 3952 bill text (introduced February 26, 2026) — the bill text
- related: CREATE AI Act (Young) — reintroduced it in 2026
- related: NIST CAISI (Center for AI Standards and Innovation) — the body S. 3952 would codify
- related: Maria Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, John Hickenlooper — cosponsors of S. 3952
- related: National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC) — the sponsors' release credits Cantwell and Young's earlier FUTURE of AI Act with creating it
- related: Ted Cruz — Commerce chair whose September 2026 markup plans were reported to include the bill
- related: AI Incident Reporting — his September 2026 letter asks the NSC to consider voluntary AI security incident reporting channels
- related: Letter from Sen. Todd Young to National Security Advisor Marco Rubio on frontier AI national security threats (September 2026) — the September 24, 2026 letter to Rubio