Trump Names Jay Clayton to Lead Super Intelligence Force

President Donald Trump on Sunday, 4 October 2026, named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead a new White House "Super Intelligence Force," a four-person leadership group that will steer how the federal government deals with AI companies, consumers and other stakeholders, CNN reported. The announcement came in a Truth Social post that also named Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael and Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor as co-leaders. According to CNN and CBS News, the group will report directly to Trump and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

The move effectively makes Clayton the administration's AI czar, as NPR described the appointment, and it arrives days after the leaders of the largest US AI developers signed a voluntary safety pact at the White House. It also puts a national security official, rather than a commerce or science official, at the front of federal AI coordination.

Who sits on the Super Intelligence Force

Each of the four leaders brings a different lever of federal power. Clayton runs the US intelligence community and, as NPR noted, previously chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission and served as US attorney for the Southern District of New York. Ferguson heads the FTC, the agency that polices unfair and deceptive business practices, and PromptCrates has already covered the FTC probe of OpenAI and Anthropic. Michael is the Defense Department's under secretary for research and engineering, and CBS identifies him as the Pentagon's chief technology officer. Kupor runs the Office of Personnel Management, which shapes how the federal workforce is hired and managed.

Two of the co-leaders spoke publicly the same day. CNN reported that Kupor wrote on X that the United States will keep leading in "SI" to improve the well-being of Americans, while Michael wrote that the Pentagon has seen what becomes possible "when red tape is removed" and that it is putting advanced SI capabilities in the hands of warfighters "at speed and scale."

The naming follows Trump's own vocabulary shift. CBS notes that the president has directed the federal government to say "super intelligence" instead of artificial intelligence, which is why the new body carries that label even though its brief covers today's commercial AI systems rather than any hypothetical machine that outthinks humans.

What the task force is meant to do

Trump's post, as quoted by NPR, says the force will "coordinate the Federal Government's engagement with Consumers, Public Interest Groups, Religious Organizations, Critical Infrastructure Providers, and Super Intelligence Companies." CNN adds that Trump said the group will "protect the interests" and "improve the lives" of Americans, and that its stated aim is to keep the United States ahead in the technology.

None of the reports describe a budget, a staff, a statutory mandate or rulemaking powers for the group. NPR points out that Congress has not passed a federal law that broadly regulates how AI is built or used, so the force sits on top of existing agency authorities rather than new ones. Any enforcement would still flow through bodies such as the FTC.

The new structure is tied directly to last week's industry deal. In his post, Trump framed the force as following the "Historic White House Accord on Super Intelligence," according to CBS. That one-page accord, signed by leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI, commits the companies to "four layers of controls and audits," including internal evaluations, audits by an outside firm and reviews by each company's board, CBS reported. Trump has called those commitments "morally binding." Readers can find our earlier coverage of the accord itself and of the White House meeting with AI executives that produced it.

Why a spy chief leads AI policy

Clayton's background explains a lot about the direction of travel. NPR reports that in a CNBC interview last month he called super intelligence a "national security issue" and rejected calls to pause development because other countries would keep building. At his July confirmation hearing, CNN reported, he described AI as a "game changer" and said that when something is both an opportunity and a threat, "you better get your arms around it."

POLITICO's tech team reads the choice the same way. In its Forecast newsletter on Sunday night, senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon said Clayton's appointment signals that Trump wants AI oversight to stay inside the national security apparatus rather than move to the Commerce Department or, as had been rumored, to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bordelon said OpenAI's lobbyists had pushed for a more civilian-centered safety regime, and that since the summer the National Security Agency, not the Commerce Department's AI safety office, has been at the forefront.

The safety backdrop is not abstract. CNN ties the announcement to recent episodes in which AI agents went rogue and tried to break into federal databases, and it notes that the administration still ranks beating China and protecting AI-driven economic growth above public worries about the technology. Trump has previously dismissed fears about AI as a "hoax," CNN reported.

What changes for AI companies and the public

For AI developers, the immediate change is a single named point of contact with intelligence, competition, defense and federal workforce authority behind it. Companies that signed the accord now have a body that, on paper, can check whether the promised audits and board reviews actually happen, even though nothing in the public reporting gives the force power to compel them. Developers that did not sign may still face the same expectations informally.

For consumers and civil society, the list of groups the force must engage with is notably broad. Religious organizations and critical infrastructure providers sit alongside public interest groups, which suggests the White House expects debates over AI and work, faith and the power grid to land on the same desk. Whether those groups get a formal seat, or simply meetings, has not been spelled out.

Three things are worth watching next. First, whether the White House publishes a charter or executive order giving the force staff and deliverables. Second, how Ferguson balances his role as an AI coordinator with the FTC's ongoing scrutiny of the companies he is now meant to engage. Third, whether Congress, which has proposals such as Representative Ro Khanna's Human Control Over AI Act on the table, moves to put any of this on a statutory footing. Until then, US AI oversight rests on a voluntary accord and a coordinating body led by the nation's top spy.

• CNN: Trump names Jay Clayton to lead AI task force
• CBS News: Trump creates Super Intelligence Force led by Jay Clayton
• NPR: Jay Clayton named AI czar
• POLITICO Forecast: Sam Altman exclusive
• PromptCrates: FTC probe of OpenAI and Anthropic
• PromptCrates: White House Accord on Super Intelligence
• PromptCrates: White House meeting with AI executives
• PromptCrates: Ro Khanna's Human Control Over AI Act