Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump says he has created a new task force focused on artificial intelligence, which will be led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton.
The “Super Intelligence Force” will work to ensure that the US continues to lead in the technology’s development and will coordinate the government’s engagement with the public, Trump posted on Sunday.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael will also be part of the task force.
Trump said last week that he would set up a board to oversee AI safety after top tech bosses signed what he described as a “morally binding” pact to regulate the technology.
He also named Director of the Office of Personnel Management Scott Kupor as a member of the taskforce, which will report directly to the president and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The announcement follows growing pressure from prominent figures in the industry, including executives of OpenAI and Anthropic, to tighten regulation of the technology.
In an interview published on 4 October, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the benefits of AI justify accepting some of its risks and argued that the technology should remain accessible to the public.
“The world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency,” Altman told Politico’s technology-focused newsletter Decoded.
Trump has dismissed calls for stronger oversight and largely left it to AI companies to regulate themselves.
The pact signed on 29 September includes the signatures of executives from top tech firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Google.
Bloomberg via Getty ImagesOn the same day, the president also signed an executive order to rename AI as “super intelligence”, after previously saying the word artificial made the technology sound “fake”.
Some experts have questioned the logic of the rebranding, arguing that the use of “super intelligence” could cause confusion as it refers to more advanced systems.
Some top tech leaders have already started to use the new name, including multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who said on social media on Sunday that he will rename his firm’s AI platform SpaceXAI as SpaceXSI.
“SpaceX is a super intelligence company”, Musk wrote.
The Tesla boss has recently been brought back into the US government to be part of a project to study the future of war.
Musk previously served in the Trump administration, heading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, before his tenure ended in a public spat with Trump.
