President Donald Trump has named the team that will lead a new government “super intelligence force” on artificial intelligence, tapping National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton and three other top officials to steer the country’s AI strategy.
In an October 4 post on Truth Social, the president said the force will be led by Clayton alongside Federal Trade Commission chairman Andrew Ferguson, Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor and Pentagon research and technology official Emil Michael. The group is tasked with protecting American interests as artificial intelligence develops, weeks after Trump first floated the idea of an AI force and a dedicated AI czar, calling AI “the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet.”
The announcement reflects the growing political weight of AI policy in Washington. A Quinnipiac University poll released last week found that 73 per cent of Americans are concerned AI could threaten human survival, while 81 per cent said safety matters more than innovation. A separate CNN poll found that 71 per cent believe the federal government is not doing enough to regulate the technology.
Guardrails, data centres and industry scepticism
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said lawmakers must ensure that “rigid” guardrails are in place so the country does not see “rogue AI agents behaving in a manner inconsistent with human values”, in an October 1 interview with USA TODAY.
Public scepticism extends beyond regulation to the physical infrastructure behind AI. A University of Massachusetts Amherst poll in late August found that only 11 per cent of Americans would support a data centre being built in their local community, while 65 per cent said they would oppose one. Trump, speaking to reporters on September 29, defended the expansion, warning that China “will take every data centre that we don’t want… because that’s great for China”, and insisting the United States was “leading by a lot” and intended to stay ahead.
The new force follows a White House summit days earlier where Trump convened technology leaders including Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk to discuss AI. The leaders signed a joint commitment to put in place “robust internal processes and controls to ensure that their technology behaves as intended”. Trump appeared to favour a light regulatory touch from government as the technology matures, telling reporters: “It’s going to be very, very safe. And there’s a self-policing, and there’s also a group-policing, and it’s going to be great.”
Source: USA Today