President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, US director of national intelligence, as the new AI czar, CNN and other media reported Friday, citing unidentified sources.
Cointelegraph reported Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and appoint an artificial intelligence czar. The president posted on Truth Social that his new project would manage the fast-growing AI sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation.
Trump’s actions followed several public warnings about the potential dangers of AI.
Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 12 that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had written a three-step proposal to pace the speed of AI development that if left unchecked, might “outrun our ability to understand and control these systems.”
Related: Anthropic chief urges slowdown in AI development to safer pace
Subsequently, Anthropic said it had chosen Accenture as an embedded evaluator to help moderate the pace of AI development, moving ahead with the first step outlined in Amodei’s proposal, Cointelegraph said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded positively to Amodei’s proposal, although Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not, arguing that such regulation was not necessary.
On Tuesday, Trump gathered AI and technology chiefs at the White House to sign a commitment to “self-police” their companies’ AI models and development, Cointelegraph reported.
Clayton led SEC during Trump’s first term
CBS News first reported that Clayton was the frontrunner for the AI position. Still, a White House official told CBS that any such announcement would come directly from the president, dismissing the reports as speculation.
Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, served as interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is expected to also remain in his current role as director of national intelligence, the sources told CNN.
The Senate confirmed Clayton in July to lead the intelligence community.
When asked about AI during his confirmation hearing, Clayton said the technology is a “game changer” and that it’s “not only an opportunity but a threat,” according to CNN.
Related: Crypto czar David Sacks argues AI threat is Orwellian, not Terminator
Cointelegraph reported in March that David Sacks, a venture capitalist who became a special White House official under Trump last year, had wrapped up a 130-day tenure as crypto and AI czar. Under US rules, such special government employees are limited to 130 days of work in a 12-month period.
“We’ve now used up that time,” Sacks told Bloomberg in March, noting that he would continue making policy recommendations across a broad range of tech industries as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
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