Trump Launches 'Super Intelligence Force' Task Force Led by DNI Jay Clayton
Summary
Updated Oct 5 — Trump formally named Jay Clayton to lead the 'Super Intelligence Force,' joined by the FTC chair, Pentagon CTO, and OPM director.
- • Trump's 'AI Force' formally launches as 'Super Intelligence Force' with named leadership
- • DNI Jay Clayton leads task force; FTC chair, Pentagon CTO, OPM director also join
- • Trump polled followers on renaming AI to 'Superior,' 'Extreme,' or 'Supreme Intelligence'
- • Trump previously dismissed AI safety as a 'hoax'; task force has no legislative mandate
Updated Sep 22 — Three polls show 61–63% of Americans oppose AI infrastructure buildout or fear existential AI risk; Altman, Musk, and Hassabis have joined Amodei calling for an AI slowdown.
Updates
Task force formally named 'Super Intelligence Force'
Trump formalized the previously announced 'AI Force' concept as the 'Super Intelligence Force,' tying into his broader push to rebrand AI as 'super intelligence' in official government terminology.
Jay Clayton (Director of National Intelligence) named task force leader
Trump tapped Jay Clayton, his Director of National Intelligence, to lead the new task force — a notable choice placing intelligence-community oversight at the center of federal AI coordination.
Task force members: FTC chair Ferguson, Pentagon CTO Michael, OPM director Kupor
The task force also includes FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon CTO Emil Michael, and OPM Director Scott Kupor. The group reports directly to Trump and chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Mandate: coordinate US AI leadership; engage consumers to critical infrastructure
The task force will reach out to consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers, and AI companies to coordinate federal AI efforts and ensure US leads in 'Super Intelligence.'
Follows White House AI self-policing accord signed by tech executives
The announcement came days after Trump hosted AI company executives at the White House, where they signed a voluntary self-policing accord — providing organizational follow-through to that political event.
Three polls: 61–63% of Americans oppose AI buildout or fear existential AI risk
NYT-Siena: 61% of likely voters oppose building data centers for AI (47% Republicans, 75% Democrats). AP-NORC: 53% highly concerned about AI environmental impact. POLITICO-Public First: 63% of U.S. adults see at least a moderate risk advanced AI could destroy humanity.
Sanders calls for AI pause; AOC demands strict safety standards and public oversight
Sen. Bernie Sanders called for pausing advanced AI development and permanently banning superintelligence. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for strict safety standards and public oversight, warning Congress not to bail out Big Tech if the 'AI bubble' pops.
Altman, Musk, and Hassabis join Amodei in calling for AI slowdown
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis have all publicly called for slowing AI development as systems grow more powerful, expanding the slowdown coalition well beyond Anthropic.
Anthropic's Hubinger: >10% personal probability AI kills all humans within a decade
Anthropic alignment researcher Evan Hubinger publicly stated he personally believes there is greater than a 10% chance AI could 'kill all humans' within the next decade, adding weight to the growing calls for regulatory intervention that Trump is dismissing as a 'hoax.'
Details
Trump announces 'AI Force' modeled on Space Force
Trump declared on Truth Social he is forming an AI Force similar to the Space Force he created in his first term. No mandate, structure, or authority for the new entity was specified in the posts.
AI Czar appointment promised 'in the near future'; role undefined
Trump said he will announce an AI Czar soon, quipping 'Only High I.Q. individuals need apply.' David Sacks, who previously held a combined AI and crypto czar role, stepped down earlier in 2026 to co-chair the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Trump labels AI safety advocacy a 'hoax' alongside Russia, Global Warming
In Truth Social posts, Trump equated AI safety concerns with a list of Democratic 'hoaxes' — including Russia, Ukraine, Global Warming, and both impeachments — vowing he 'will not stand by and let this happen' to the AI industry.
Truth Social poll asks followers to rename 'Artificial Intelligence'
Trump opened a poll on Truth Social offering three options to replace the term 'Artificial Intelligence': Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence. The poll was still running at publication time.
Huang and Trump aligned on 'hoax'; Amodei called for industry slowdown
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, appearing with Trump on-stage at the All-In Summit, agreed the AI safety backlash is a 'hoax' and said 'we're not going to let' a slowdown happen. In contrast, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently released a plan to 'pace the frontier' and called for a collective industry slowdown.
Trump privately open to 'guardrails' but warns of 'negative forces'
At a golf tournament the prior weekend, Trump acknowledged openness to AI guardrails but argued that 'a lot of negative forces' raising AI concerns 'shouldn't be bringing it up' — a more nuanced private stance than his public Truth Social posts suggest.
Trump's AI Force and AI Czar announcement: policy framing, context, and industry reactions
What This Means
Trump's AI Force announcement and AI Czar pledge signal White House intent to champion AI development over regulation — but with no defined mandate, both moves look more like political positioning than substantive policy. More consequentially, by labeling AI safety concerns a Democratic 'hoax,' Trump is pursuing a sharply accelerationist stance at a moment when public opinion is moving the opposite direction: three new polls show 61–63% of Americans oppose AI infrastructure buildout or fear existential risk from advanced AI. The coalition calling for a slowdown has also expanded well beyond Anthropic — now including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis — while an Anthropic researcher publicly estimated a greater than 10% personal probability of AI killing all humans within a decade. The alignment between Trump and Nvidia's Jensen Huang on one side, and an increasingly broad cross-industry and bipartisan coalition on the other, makes AI safety a defining policy flashpoint.
Sentiment
Skeptical of dismissing safety risks as a hoax, questioning policy substance over rhetoric
“Trump 'AI Force' + AI Czar (Sept 19, Space Force clone). Same week: CEO pause letter + Anthropic-Accenture $2B safety auditor. Stack = CEO self-reg + Big Four billable + WH cheerleading. Zero federal oversight.”
“Trump's proposed AI Force has a name and a czar role, but no timeline or stated powers. Calling safety concerns a 'hoax' does not answer the harder question: what safeguards will govern the industry?”
“Trump Creates AI Force. He dismissed industry warnings as a 'hoax'... I'm not so sure it's a good idea to be so dismissive with AI. Safeguards are crucial.”
“Trump wants to rename AI and create an 'AI Force' - framing the backlash as a hoax while building a new government AI formation. The AI culture war just became policy.”
Split
~70/30 skeptical/concerned vs. pro-acceleration (with pro-Trump posts defending the moves as anti-hoax and China-competitive)
Sources
- Trump says it’s time to rebrand AI with a new name — and he’s also creating an AI ForceTechCrunch
- Trump vows to create ‘AI Force’ and appoint czar amid calls to regulate technology’s development - CNNCnn
- Trump says he will appoint an AI czar and form an "AI Force", in a Truth Social post that rejects AI safety concerns as a "hoax"Bloomberg
- Trump now says he wants to form an ‘AI Force’The Verge
- Trump rejects AI slowdown calls, launches "AI Force" insteadArs Technica
- Trump proposes ‘AI Force’ as calls for AI regulation grow - kcentv.comKcentv
- AI ForceAxios
- Trump announces a new ‘Super Intelligence Force’ to lead federal efforts on AIFastcompany