WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead a new White House task force on artificial intelligence, giving the nation’s top intelligence official a central role in shaping the administration’s approach to the technology.
Trump announced the group, which he calls the Super Intelligence Force, in a post on Truth Social. The name reflects his preference for the term super intelligence over artificial intelligence, wording he has told federal agencies to adopt, according to CBS News and The Associated Press.
The task force will work “to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote. He said it would coordinate Washington’s dealings with consumers, advocacy groups, religious organizations, operators of critical infrastructure and AI companies, and that it would answer to him and to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.
Three other officials will serve with Clayton: Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s under secretary for research and engineering and its chief technology officer; Andrew Ferguson, who chairs the Federal Trade Commission; and Scott Kupor, who runs the Office of Personnel Management. The group has 120 days to report on the technology’s risks and opportunities and to recommend what role Washington should play, CNBC reported.
Follows a voluntary industry accord
The announcement came less than a week after Trump hosted leaders of major AI companies at the White House on Sept. 29. Executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI took part, CBS News reported, and Clayton also attended, according to NBC News. At that meeting, the companies signed a one-page set of voluntary safety commitments.
Citing the copy of the accord that Trump posted online, CBS News reported that the companies agreed to confirm their models work as intended through their own evaluations, outside audits and reviews by their boards. Trump has described the arrangement as the industry policing itself.
Some AI leaders, among them Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, have called for federal guardrails on the most advanced AI systems, CNBC reported. Trump has largely dismissed warnings about the technology’s dangers and has said he will not regulate the industry, according to NPR and NBC News.
Clayton, whom the Senate confirmed as director of national intelligence in July, oversees the 18 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community. He previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission and served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. In a CNBC interview last month, he described super intelligence as a matter of national security and argued against pausing its development while other countries press ahead, NPR reported. “I don’t think any American should think that that’s a good strategy,” Clayton said.
The job of White House AI adviser was previously held by venture capitalist David Sacks, whom Trump chose as his AI and crypto czar in December 2024. Sacks stepped down in March at the end of his service as a special government employee, CNBC and NBC News reported, and he now co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Federal rules for AI remain thin. Congress has not passed a law broadly governing how the technology is built or used, though some states, including California, have adopted their own requirements, NPR reported.
What to watch
NPR noted that it is unclear what Clayton’s appointment will mean for the AI industry, given how little federal regulation exists. Key questions include how the task force divides work among the intelligence community, the FTC, the Pentagon and the federal personnel office; what it recommends at the end of its 120-day review; and whether Congress takes up AI legislation after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
