Trump Names Intelligence Chief Jay Clayton to Lead New ‘Super Intelligence Force’

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead a new federal task force on artificial intelligence, formally standing up the “Super Intelligence Force” he has been promising since last month.

In a post on Truth Social, the president said the group will coordinate the federal effort to keep the United States ahead in the technology, which he has taken to calling super intelligence and has described as bigger than the Industrial Revolution and the internet, according to CNN and USA Today. The force, he said, will protect Americans’ interests and improve their lives.

Clayton will effectively serve as the administration’s AI czar, the Wall Street Journal reported, with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon research and engineering chief Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor serving alongside him as vice chairs, according to TechCrunch’s account of the Journal’s reporting. The group will report to Trump and to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

A 120-day clock, and a wide brief

The task force has 120 days to deliver a report on the risks and opportunities presented by advanced AI systems and on what role the federal government should play, according to the Journal. Its membership reaches well beyond the four named leaders: Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are also among those involved, with former AI czar David Sacks and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice serving as outside advisers, the Journal reported.

The force is expected to coordinate the government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and AI companies, the Associated Press reported. That outreach follows a White House meeting last week at which top AI executives signed a voluntary accord to self-police the technology’s development, and an executive order directing federal agencies to use the term “super intelligence” in place of artificial intelligence in many official communications.

Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who was confirmed in July to lead the intelligence community, has argued that the greatest danger is falling behind. The risk of not being first is high, he told the Journal, insisting it would be irresponsible for the United States to back away while rivals such as China advance.

Ambition meets public unease

The announcement arrives as public anxiety about the technology runs high. In a Quinnipiac University poll released last week, 73% of Americans said they were concerned that AI could threaten human survival, and 81% said safety matters more than innovation, USA Today reported. A CNN poll last month found 71% of Americans believe the federal government is not doing enough to regulate AI.

“We’ve got to be concerned that guardrails that are rigid are put into place so that we don’t see rogue AI agents behaving in a manner inconsistent with human values,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an Oct. 1 interview with USA Today.

Trump has largely dismissed such fears, at times calling them a hoax, and has warned that slowing development would hand China an advantage. He has also defended expanding the data centers that power AI systems, even as a University of Massachusetts Amherst poll in late August found just 11% of Americans would support one in their own community and 65% would oppose it — a backlash that is already shaking up midterm races, CNN noted.

The force’s report, due early next year, will be the administration’s first comprehensive statement of how it intends to govern a technology it simultaneously wants to accelerate, rebrand and keep firmly in American hands.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN, USA Today, TechCrunch and the Associated Press.