March 09, 2026
AI-Ready Biodata Is America’s Next Strategic Infrastructure
This article was originally published in War on the Rocks.
There is little doubt in Washington that AI is a powerful technology that will help determine which country rules the 21st century. Policymakers from the Hill to the White House have made U.S. AI leadership a priority and invested significant resources towards staying ahead of competitors. Yet the United States is at perhaps greater risk than ever before of losing the broader global technology competition.
The nation that leads in AI-bio will shape global standards, industrial supply chains, medical innovation, climate resilience, and biodefense. Sustained investment at the scale of tens of billions over a decade is not extraordinary in context.
Despite growing investment in AI, U.S. policymakers have failed to prepare for its convergence with biotechnology, a fusion that will define economic and national power in the coming decades. While competitors are building coordinated AI-bio ecosystems, the U.S. biodata (biological data) environment remains fragmented, underfunded, and insecure. Without a federally led effort to build AI-ready biodata as national infrastructure, the United States risks ceding leadership in both AI and biotechnology at a critical moment.
Read the full article in War on the Rocks.
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