White House forms AI task force, names DNI's Clayton as chair

Task force will rely on industry as primary risk-management vehicle

The White House on October 3 unveiled a new task force charged with preparing a report on the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence and coming up with decisions on what responsibility the federal government has over the fast-moving technology, with Office of the Director of National Intelligence head Jay Clayton named as its chair. A senior White House official said the appointment effectively makes Clayton President Trump’s AI czar. The group, formally called the “Super Intelligence Force” — adopting Trump’s preferred name for AI — has 120 days to deliver its report, and its charter allows the work to be extended or transferred to a federal agency.

Clayton framed the task force’s mission as industry-led. “The president asked that a group be put together that was going to ensure exactly what he said, which is that we stay the leaders in superintelligence, and that the interests of the American people are put first,” Clayton told The Wall Street Journal. He said the task force will treat industry as the primary vehicle for managing risks while working with companies to identify issues. “I expect there will be mechanisms developed in dialogue, just like there are in other industries,” Clayton said, citing risk models developed with the Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission for the financial industry. He said the task force would examine current law and discuss possible actions that Congress could take.

The task force’s charter, quoted by the WSJ, says the group will “develop plans for responding to SI-enabled threats to our society, while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition.” The task force will examine existing warnings and systemized notifications to the government of breaches, hacks, jailbreaks and other issues, and “recommend ways to improve the government’s response capacity under existing authorities.”

The group has three vice chairs. Emil Michael, undersecretary of war for Research and Engineering, will coordinate with AI companies. Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management, will coordinate with critical infrastructure providers and other industry stakeholders. Andrew Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, will oversee consumer interests and groups advocating for people of faith, children, privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of association.

Members include Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. External participants include venture capitalist David Sacks, co-chair of the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will provide advice on national security.

The task force follows a White House meeting on Tuesday in which AI executives, including OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, agreed to a series of voluntary principles: internal controls to monitor model development, external model reviews by third parties, and notifications to boards of directors about safety efforts. “I will never stifle the growth of technology that will be bigger than the industrial revolution,” Trump said Tuesday.

The formation reflects a tension inside the administration. Trump has largely advocated for less regulation, the WSJ reported, but the task force represents a growing recognition that some government oversight will be necessary. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have pushed for more government action to address the technology’s unpopularity and its potential for cyberattacks and AI-enabled biological weapons, the newspaper reported, citing officials. The divide has hampered policymaking at times.

Skeptics argue that self-regulation is inadequate. Recent AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and other companies have demonstrated that they are improving at potentially alarming rates, the WSJ reported, citing skeptics. Public concern has grown over AI’s potential to wipe out jobs, perform sophisticated hacks, and its use as a weapon — or even “wipe out civilization,” as some industry researchers fear. Data centers that power the technology have also faced growing public backlash.

“The Task Force shall act as a coordinating body to ensure that the U.S. remains at the forefront of SI development while protecting the American people,” the charter states. The task force is also directed to focus on “ensuring that emerging opportunities and risks are identified and communicated to government personnel, industry, and the American people.” Its work could extend beyond the initial 120-day window if necessary or be transferred to a government agency, according to the charter.