Trump Forms 'Super Intelligence Force' Under DNI Jay Clayton to Steer US AI Policy

US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a new federal task force called the Super Intelligence Force, a four-person body that will coordinate how the executive branch deals with advanced artificial intelligence and report directly to the President. The announcement, made in a post on Truth Social, gives the administration a single command point for AI policy just days after the White House hosted the heads of the biggest technology companies.

Who Is on the Force

The group will be led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who has been widely tipped to become the administration's AI czar. He will be joined by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Emil Michael, the Pentagon's chief technology officer and under secretary for research and engineering, and Scott Kupor, who heads the Office of Personnel Management.

The mix of members is telling. It brings together the country's top intelligence official, its main consumer-protection and competition regulator, the defence department's technology chief and the official responsible for the federal workforce. Trump said the four will answer to him and to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

What It Is Meant to Do

According to the President's post, the force is tasked with making sure the United States continues to lead the world in what the administration now calls super intelligence, a technology Trump described as bigger than the industrial revolution and the internet. It is also meant to protect American interests and improve the lives of citizens.

In practical terms, the body will act as the government's main point of contact on AI with consumers, public interest groups, religious organisations, operators of critical infrastructure and the AI companies themselves. That makes it as much a coordination and outreach office as a policy shop.

A New Vocabulary in Washington

The task force builds on an executive order signed earlier this week, titled Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence, which tells federal agencies to stop using the terms artificial intelligence and AI in official settings wherever the law allows, and to say super intelligence and SI instead. For now, the existing legal definition of AI in Title 15 of the US Code applies to the new term.

The order also gives the President's science and technology adviser 60 days to send Congress draft legislation with a fresh statutory definition, along with suggested changes to existing laws. Until Congress acts, the rename is largely a matter of language rather than legal substance.

Following the White House Accord

Trump framed the force as the next step after what he called the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, agreed at a lunch where leading technology companies, in his words, confirmed their responsibilities to the American people. That meeting, which followed the launch of the America.gov chatbot (see our earlier coverage), brought together executives including Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. After the lunch, Clayton told reporters there was consensus that American leadership in AI is the single most important national security issue.

Why It Matters

The move signals that the White House sees AI primarily through a national security and competitiveness lens. Putting the intelligence chief in charge, alongside a defence technologist, suggests the administration's priority is staying ahead of rivals such as China rather than slowing development, even as some industry leaders have urged more caution after recent safety scares.

For other governments, including India, which is building its own AI compute and model programmes, the creation of a centralised US body is worth watching. It is likely to shape export rules, procurement and how American AI firms engage with foreign partners in the months ahead.

This is an original summary based on public reporting. See our editorial policy for how we source, write, and correct our stories.