Trump administration
Trump names Jay Clayton to lead a new Super Intelligence Force
Trump created a White House task force on AI led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, with the FTC chairman among its leaders.
President Trump created a federal task force on AI led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Emil Michael and Scott Kupor also leading it. All four report to Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Trump announced the “Super Intelligence Force” in a Truth Social post Oct. 4, 2026, according to CBS News, AP and CNN. He wrote that he was acting “Following the Historic White House Accord on Super Intelligence.” The group will coordinate the federal effort “to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” AP quoted the post as saying.
Four leaders under Trump and Wiles
Michael is the Pentagon’s chief technology officer and Kupor directs the Office of Personnel Management, CBS News and AP reported Oct. 4. AP said the task force will reach out to consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and AI companies.
Before the announcement, CBS News reported, citing sources, that Clayton was likely to be picked as AI czar. CGTN said he would be the second person to hold the informal title, after venture capitalist David Sacks, who held it early in Trump’s second term and stepped down.
A 120-day charter
The task force has 120 days to report on the risks and opportunities of AI, the Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 3, as relayed by CGTN. The Journal said the charter directs the group to “develop plans for responding to SI-enabled threats to our society, while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition” and to “recommend ways to improve the government’s response capacity under existing authorities.”
Clayton told the Journal the task force would assess risks while preventing overregulation. “Not being first increases the identified, and unidentified, risks, particularly from our adversaries,” he said. The Journal said members include Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The accord behind it
Trump hosted the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI at the White House last week. They signed a voluntary accord that Trump called “morally binding,” CBS News reported. The one-page accord commits companies to “four layers of controls and audits,” including internal evaluations, external audits and board reviews. “I’m seeing tremendous self-policing,” Trump told reporters, CNN reported.
AP and CBS News said Trump has directed the federal government to use “super intelligence” in place of AI.
Analysis
We think the labs deal with Ferguson in two places. The companies that signed the voluntary accord are the ones the task force will engage. Ferguson sits on the task force and chairs the FTC, which Reuters reported Sept. 30 is investigating OpenAI, Anthropic and METR over consumer risks, citing an FTC official. The charter, as the Journal described it, points the group to existing authorities and warns against overregulation.