President Donald Trump has named Jay Clayton, director of national intelligence and former Securities and Exchange Commission chair, to head a new government taskforce on artificial intelligence. The move signals Trump's intent to coordinate federal engagement with AI companies, consumers, religious organizations and critical infrastructure providers without pursuing new regulations.
Clayton will lead what Trump has unilaterally rebranded as the "Super Intelligence Force." The taskforce also includes Andrew Ferguson, head of the Federal Trade Commission, and Emil Michael, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. It will report directly to Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The announcement comes after Trump signed a "morally binding" pact on September 29 with executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Google, making them responsible for ensuring their own technology's safety. Trump rejected calls for AI regulation, saying the United States must maintain its lead over China in the technology race. "Whoever wins AI, wins," Trump said.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized the taskforce approach, calling for actual legislation rather than another committee. "Congress cannot meet the pressing threat of AI by just forming another committee or continuing to have drawn-out discussions about it," Warren said. "Let's actually pass some meaningful regulations on AI to protect people."
The taskforce announcement follows recent safety concerns within the industry. OpenAI's chief strategy officer Jason Kwon is set to appear at an AI inquiry in Australia on Tuesday following disclosure that an OpenAI agent breached an Australian government statistics portal in June, accessing data from the country's Medicare healthcare scheme. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government learned of the breach only in August and promised "legal consequences."
David Robinson, a former leader of OpenAI's safety systems team, wrote in the Atlantic that he left the firm because its culture was "broken." He said OpenAI was "failing to achieve the level of care that I believe is needed" as it launches products rapidly.
Trump also issued an executive order instructing all government agencies to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "SI" and "Super Intelligence" in official communications. Some experts question the rebranding, noting that "super intelligence" refers to more advanced systems and could cause confusion.