President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he would name four top administration officials to a “Super Intelligence Force” that will coordinate the federal government’s response to artificial intelligence.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor and Emil Michael, undersecretary of war for research and engineering, will lead the task force, Trump said. The task force is expected to coordinate the government’s engagement with various stakeholders in a growing debate over the risks of AI, including consumers, public interest groups, tech companies and infrastructure providers.
“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence, which many say is bigger than the Industrial Revolution, and the Internet, and will protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans,” Trump wrote Sunday morning on Truth Social.
The task force is one of the most significant steps the administration has taken to respond to Americans’ anxiety about the rapid development of AI. Trump has largely brushed aside fears about the technology and portrayed it as an engine of financial prosperity, even as some industry leaders warn that AI is advancing too quickly and call for a slowdown in development.
Trump announced plans last month for an “AI Force,” sparking broad confusion because he compared it to the Space Force, a branch of the military that was created in his first term. He has since sought to rebrand AI as “super intelligence,” signing an executive order that directed federal agencies to change the name of the technology in government documents.
The leaders of the task force represent different interests of the administration, followingturf wars over how the government should craft its response to AI.
Clayton was named to the task force after U.S. intelligence agencies sought a larger role in evaluating AI models, given the advanced cybersecurity threats posed by Anthropic’s Mythos and other new models. These models are more effective than humans at identifying vulnerabilities in software, creating widespread concerns that they could be abused by even inexperienced hackers to launch complex attacks on energy grids, banks and government agencies.
Ferguson chairs the federal agency that has functioned as the government’s de facto tech regulator for decades, and the FTC recently launched a broad investigation into the safety of the systems developed by Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI). The probe could provide backing for the administration’s claims that existing laws provide sufficient guardrails for AI systems.
Kupor, former managing partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has deep personal ties and experience within the investment community funding AI development. Many venture capitalists, including former Trump AI czar David Sacks, have resisted tech leaders’ calls to slow down AI development, arguing that the United States needs to forge ahead to remain competitive with China.
Michael has led the Pentagon’s efforts to transform the military with emerging technologies, amid fierce debate about AI use in warfare. Michael, who was Uber’s No. 2 executive in the 2010s, has repeatedly resisted increasing regulation of AI companies.
Clayton, Ferguson and Kupor were among the attendees at a lunch the White House hosted Tuesday with top tech leaders, including Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. After the lunch, Trump said the industry should police itself. The leaders of Google, Anthropic, Meta, Nvidia, xAI and OpenAI signed what Trump called a “morally binding” accord in which they committed to develop internal controls for their systems and submit to external audits.
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