President Donald Trump announced the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force” to lead the federal government’s response to AI innovation.
“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 wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
Trump tapped Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the task force alongside Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, under secretary of defense for research and engineering Emil Michael, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor.
In a Time interview released last week, Trump said the Super Intelligence Force would be made up of “very smart people that understand it, who will be advising me.”
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The leaders of the group will continue serving in their current posts while taking on their roles on the new task force.
David Sacks was the Trump administration’s crypto and AI czar before leaving in March after reaching the 130-day limit for special government employees.
Clayton, who took over as head of the U.S. intelligence community in August, is stepping into the position as Washington has been roiled by debate over how much oversight the AI industry needs. He has argued that the government already has tools to address AI-related harms.
“We have consumer protection laws. We have product liability laws,” Clayton said Wednesday on CNBC. He also pointed to the Justice Department as part of the government’s existing framework for dealing with AI.
In recent weeks, leaders at Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceXAI have urged AI companies to slow the development of their most powerful models to allow more time for safeguards, warning they could be misused for cyberattacks and eventually outpace human control.
Trump met Tuesday at the White House with leaders of major tech companies. Six companies — Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, SpaceXAI and Nvidia — signed a voluntary safety accord. Trump said they would “self-police” and take responsibility for developing their technology safely. He called the agreement “morally binding,” though it imposes no legal requirements on the companies.
But lawmakers from both parties are pushing for more accountability, including a bipartisan bill from Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) that would hold AI developers and operators liable for hacking incidents involving AI agents.
Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 22 officially rebranding “AI” as “Super Intelligence,” or “SI,” across the executive branch.
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