Trump names intelligence chief Jay Clayton to lead new “Super Intelligence Force”
The new White House AI task force will coordinate federal engagement with AI companies and the public, days after top AI firms signed a voluntary safety accord. Congress still has no broad AI law.
What was announced: President Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that he is forming a “Super Intelligence Force” (SIF), with Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton at its head as the White House’s new AI czar, CBS News and NPR reported. Trump has directed the federal government to use “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence,” CBS said.
Who is on it: Clayton will be joined by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael (under secretary of defense for research and engineering) and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, who will report to Trump and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, CBS reported. Trump said the group will “coordinate the Federal Government’s engagement with Consumers, Public Interest Groups, Religious Organizations, Critical Infrastructure Providers, and Super Intelligence Companies,” according to NPR.
The accord behind it: The move follows a White House meeting last week with leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI, who signed a set of voluntary safety standards, CBS reported. Under the one-page accord Trump shared, the companies committed to “four layers of controls and audits,” including internal evaluations, audits by an outside firm and reviews by each company’s board, and to meet regularly on safety best practices. Trump called the standards “morally binding.”
Who Clayton is: Before being confirmed as national intelligence director earlier this year, Clayton was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, NPR said. In a CNBC interview last month he called super intelligence a “national security issue” and pushed back on calls for a development “pause,” NPR reported.
What this means: The task force gives the White House a named point of contact for AI companies, but the safety commitments behind it are voluntary. NPR noted that Congress has not passed a law broadly regulating AI development or use, so for now the rules come from company pledges and a patchwork of state laws such as California’s.