Trump Staffs the Super Intelligence Force: The Spy Chief Chairs It, a Report Is Due in 120 Days, and Not One Scientist Is on the List
On October 4 Trump announced on Truth Social that the AI Force floated in September is now the Super Intelligence Force, chaired by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, with a report due within 120 days.
Three key facts
The three vice chairs are FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor. Members also include Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Bessent and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The group reports directly to Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The mandate reads: coordinate the federal government's engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and super intelligence companies, and within 120 days determine the federal government's level of responsibility in AI development. In other words, the report is supposed to answer how much government should be involved.
Clayton set the tone on day one: the risk of not being first is high, and not being first increases the identified and unidentified risks, particularly from our adversaries. This is the first time the force has had names attached, after Trump announced the AI Force and an AI czar in September and then ordered government documents to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence.
WangDou's Take
The intelligence chief as chair, the Pentagon's CTO, the FTC chair and the personnel director as deputies, and not a single scientist. In plain language, this is not a technical committee. It is a war room. Clayton's opening line about the risk of not being first leaks the answer to the 120-day report before it is written: the risk assessment will conclude that we must go faster. Condoleezza Rice is on the list too, the Cold War bench transplanted straight onto AI. The name went from AI Force to Super Intelligence Force, because even the word artificial was not punchy enough. In September the message was watch it grow up carefully. In October the babysitting was handed to the spy chief. The parenting problem has officially become a national security problem.
Source: Gizmodo · Trump Names National Intelligence Director as New Super Intelligence Czar · TechRepublic