<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton will serve as the AI czar for the Trump administration and lead a three-month effort to establish the "risks and opportunities" associated with artificial intelligence technology.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Clayton, who was expected to lead the White House’s recently formed “Super Intelligence Force,” stated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the "risk of not being first is high" amid ongoing debates about AI policy in Washington. His appointment follows a meeting where leading AI executives convened at the White House and signed a non-binding commitment to self-regulation known as the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Not being first increases the identified and unidentified risks, particularly from our adversaries,” Clayton said. “Being first will better enable us to address these risks on behalf of the American people.” The Trump administration has emphasized an anti-regulatory approach to AI policy, often highlighting the need for American companies to outpace their Chinese counterparts.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“I feel very comfortable that we’ve gotten a group with a lot of experience, diverse skill sets and a common commitment,” Clayton said regarding the task force participants, which include Trump administration officials such as Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as venture capitalist David Sacks and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “These are all serious people who have addressed opportunities and risks in the past and are committed to doing this so that America wins the SI race and we win it through the benefit of the American people.” Trump also signed an executive order this week changing “artificial intelligence” to “super intelligence” at his request.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A bipartisan backlash against data center construction has raised safety and cybersecurity concerns throughout September as lawmakers and the public continue to address AI’s potential impacts on the economy and society. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has become a prominent figure in the “pace the frontier” movement following hacking incidents, which, combined with public skepticism about AI, have led to calls for regulation over the summer.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Grok CEO Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Amodei, Trump, and House Speaker Mike Johnson at the signing ceremony on Tuesday.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Johnson described the commitment as “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review.” Clayton also noted that the task force would discuss potential legislative options that could form part of an AI framework moving forward.</p>