Donald Trump has given a new task force 120 days to tell him what the federal government should do about artificial intelligence, and put his intelligence chief in charge of it.
The president announced the Super Intelligence Force in a Truth Social post on Sunday. Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence and now the administration’s AI czar, will chair it. Trump prefers “super intelligence” to AI.
The three vice chairs are Andrew Ferguson, who chairs the Federal Trade Commission, Emil Michael, the under secretary of war for research and engineering, and Scott Kupor, who runs the Office of Personnel Management. None of the four named leaders runs a science agency.
The group’s job, in Trump’s words, is to coordinate the federal effort to ensure that America continues to lead the world. Its report is to cover AI’s risks and opportunities and recommend what Washington’s responsibilities should be. The charter pulls two ways. According to TechCrunch, it asks for plans to respond to threats enabled by super intelligence while preventing overregulation that would stifle innovation. Clayton has indicated which way he leans, saying one major risk is not being first.
Decrypt reports that the force answers to Trump and Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, and will handle federal dealings with AI companies, infrastructure providers, consumer groups and religious organisations.
It arrives days after AI companies signed a non-binding safety accord at the White House, and from a president who has called AI safety worries a hoax. A report due in roughly four months has no force of its own. The thing to watch is whether it recommends anything a company could be made to do, or stops at coordination.
