On December 27, 2025, former Pentagon artificial intelligence policy director Mark Beall warned on Fox Report that the race to control advanced AI will determine the future of the international order and that AI is rapidly becoming a political battleground. His blunt assessment should set off alarm bells for every American who cares about national security and sovereignty, because this isn’t tech talk — it’s strategy for the 21st century.
Beall isn’t a talking head with no skin in the game; he served as the inaugural AI policy director at the Department of Defense’s Joint AI Center and now helps steer policy through groups like the AI Policy Network. He brings real experience building DoD-wide governance, coordinating allied efforts, and advising on frontier risks — credentials that make his warnings impossible to shrug off.
The stakes are straightforward: whomever dominates AI capabilities will hold disproportionate sway over military power, intelligence collection, economic leverage, and the narratives that shape global politics. That reality means the fight isn’t just academic — it’s a contest between nations and ideologies for who writes the rules of the new world, and our adversaries are not standing still.
Conservatives should be especially wary of the left’s reflex to weaponize regulation and moral panic to kneecap American innovation in the name of virtue signaling. Beall and others have stressed that Washington still hasn’t fully grasped AI’s security dimensions, and partisan grandstanding or bureaucratic overreach would only hand advantage to strategic competitors. The last thing America needs is policy that prioritizes woke theater over technological leadership.
What works is a clear, unapologetic strategy: strengthen defense partnerships, fund cutting-edge R&D, secure supply chains for chips and data infrastructure, and align industry and government on responsible but robust deployment. Beall helped architect efforts like the AI Partnership for Defense that show how allies can cooperate to preserve an edge — a model Republicans should champion rather than mimic the regulators who reflexively stifle progress.
If conservatives truly love this country, we will not allow our institutions to be outmaneuvered by bureaucrats or foreign adversaries while our workforce and entrepreneurs are told to slow down. We must demand leadership that treats AI as the strategic frontier it is: protect American innovation, secure our defenses, and reject hollow global dictates that would cede dominance to rivals.
This debate will shape the world our children inherit, and it’s time for patriots to step up. Support policies that back American workers, shield our technologies from hostile hands, and keep the United States in the driver’s seat — because if we don’t lead, someone else with very different values will.
