As previously indicated, President Donald Trump has declared the establishment of a new Super Intelligence Force, which he stated will be overseen by national intelligence director Jay Clayton along with other members of his administration.
“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet, and will protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans,” Trump shared in a Sunday morning post on his social network, Truth Social.
In September, in response to an AI safety discussion that the president had largely dismissed as a fabrication by “Radical Left Dumocrats,” Trump had stated his intention to form an AI Force and appoint an AI czar (“Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!”).
Since then, Trump signed an executive order seeking to rebrand AI as “super intelligence,” a term that appeared to be adopted, despite some initial fumbles, by the tech executives who gathered at the White House this week to endorse a non-binding safety pledge. (That pledge contained a notable typo.)
Therefore, it is logical that Trump’s new task force is named to align with this updated terminology. The Wall Street Journal indicates that Clayton will preside over the Super Intelligence Force, effectively making him the new AI/SI czar, with Andrew Ferguson (Federal Trade Commission Chair), Emil Michael (Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering), and Scott Kupor (Office of Personnel Management Director) serving as vice chairs.
The task force is reportedly granted 120 days to compile a report on the potential risks and advantages presented by AI. Clayton, who had previously asserted that it would be irresponsible for the United States to “back away” from AI while nations like China progress, expressed similar sentiments to the WSJ, maintaining that a significant risk is “not being first.”
The task force’s charter reportedly outlines its mission to “develop plans for responding to SI-enabled threats to our society, while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition.”