Trump taps Jay Clayton to chair Super Intelligence Force — SkimNews

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- Trump announced the "Super Intelligence Force" in a Sunday Truth Social post, saying it will coordinate federal efforts to ensure America "continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence."
- Jay Clayton, the national intelligence director, will chair the task force, with FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson, Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, and OPM Director Scott Kupor named as vice chairs (per the Wall Street Journal).
- The task force has 120 days to produce a report on AI's risks and opportunities, per the WSJ.
- Trump signed an executive order rebranding AI as "super intelligence," a term embraced by tech executives who gathered at the White House this week to sign a non-binding safety pledge (which included a typo).
- The force's charter directs it to "develop plans for responding to SI-enabled threats to our society, while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition."
- Clayton said the biggest risk is "not being first," citing the need for the U.S. to keep pace with countries like China in AI development.
Why it matters: The task force's charter explicitly directs it to "prevent overregulation," and Clayton himself framed the chief danger as "not being first" against China. That means the 120-day risk report will be written through a competitive-lens rather than a safety-first one, consolidating federal AI coordination under the DNI with industry-friendly guardrails as the default.
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