Trump Establishes Federal AI Task Force Led by Jay Clayton

Editorial illustration of a sleek metallic shield featuring a central illuminated neural node network against a minimal blue and gray backdrop.

President Donald Trump announced the creation of a new federal artificial intelligence task force, designating Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the initiative as the administration's second AI czar. Trump revealed the group in a Truth Social post, naming it the Super Intelligence Force.

Task Force Leadership and Administration Directives

The newly formed Super Intelligence Force reports directly to Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Serving as vice chairs alongside Clayton are Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, and Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael. Additional members include Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former AI czar David Sacks providing external guidance.

The task force follows a recent executive order issued by Trump directing federal agencies to adopt the phrase super intelligence instead of artificial intelligence in official communications. According to statements by Clayton to The Wall Street Journal, the group is tasked with delivering a comprehensive report within 120 days addressing the risks and opportunities of the technology, along with guidelines for managing security breach disclosures using existing federal powers.

Focus on Innovation over Voluntary Slowdowns

Under its charter, the group is mandated to create strategies for countering threats enabled by super intelligence while preventing regulatory capture and overregulation that could hinder domestic innovation. Clayton has explicitly framed super intelligence as a critical national security imperative, emphasizing that failing to maintain a lead carries severe risks.

This stance directly rejects proposals from tech industry leaders—including Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk—who advocated for coordinated slowdowns to allow time for model evaluations. The task force's formation also follows a non-binding White House safety accord signed by executives such as Amodei and Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang, which established voluntary internal audit committees.

AI-generated editorial illustration; not a documentary photograph.

Source: Trump launches Super Intelligence Force with Jay Clayton as AI czar

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