Donald Trump on Sunday officially named Jay Clayton, head of American intelligence, to head a working group on artificial intelligence (AI), with priority on coordination but not regulation. The “Super Intelligence Force,” led by Jay Clayton, is “charged with coordinating federal government efforts to ensure that the United States continues to lead the world in Super Intelligence,” the president wrote on his Truth Social network.
The American head of state decided, at the end of September, to rename AI “super intelligence” and issued a decree so that the term would henceforth be used by all government services. The unit, led by Jay Clayton, “will coordinate the government's relations with consumers, large corporations, religious organizations, key infrastructure operators and super intelligence companies,” detailed Donald Trump.
Jay Clayton revealed on Saturday, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the creation of this group and its designation as referent. This assignment is in addition to the functions he currently holds. According to the task force's mission statement, obtained by the Wall Street Journal, it will have to make proposals "to respond to the threats linked to (AI) for our society." This objective must be pursued “while preventing overregulation and regulatory capture which would penalize innovation and competition,” adds the document.
Regulatory capture consists of letting some of the players in a market define the regulatory mechanisms themselves and agree to preserve their competitive advantage. The cell will leave most of the AI risk management to the industry itself, officials warned the Wall Street Journal, while working with companies in the sector. On Tuesday, following a meeting at the White House, AI big bosses made a series of commitments in this area, including the integration of independent evaluators and the establishment of additional internal controls.
These initiatives come after OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta all reported incidents where AI models in testing spontaneously joined the internet and intruded on dozens of sites and platforms. Several employees or employees who have resigned from these companies have warned of the dangers of AI becoming increasingly difficult to control as its capabilities improve.
Donald Trump criticized these warnings, considered too alarmist, and warned against a slowdown in the pace of development of AI, suggested by Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Sam Altman (OpenAI) and Demis Hassabis (Google). As for the possible slippage of models beyond the control of their creators, the American president indicated that he preferred the application of corporate civil liability to regulation. They could thus be brought to justice for faulty AI, as can manufacturers of consumer products.
The appointment of Jay Clayton marks “the acceptance (by the White House) that AI has become increasingly central to the imprint that this government will leave,” commented Aalok Mehta, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). For him, the former business lawyer will have to navigate “a very narrow corridor” so as not to restrict AI companies while giving assurances to the general American public who are mostly worried about the consequences of this technology.
Furthermore, the fact that Donald Trump chose the head of intelligence for this mission “shows (that he) sees AI through the prism of national security and particularly as a tool in the competition with China”, analyzes Connor Martin, of the Council on International Relations (CFR), a think tank. To this extent, he adds, “it is clear that, for the moment, the government does not want a law or decrees that establish significant regulation.”
