President Trump is sick of people “attacking” the AI industry, which is why he will be forming an “AI Force” and appointing an “AI Czar.”
In a rambling rant posted on his Truth Social account, Trump said he would “not stand by” as “the radical left” calls for “the decimation, or destruction, of AI.” Which is why he claims he will be forming the AI Force and soon appointing an AI Czar, a position that venture capitalist David Sacks held in his administration until he stepped down earlier this year.
“Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” Trump said about the AI Czar position.
The President did not volunteer details on what this AI task force would do exactly, except that it will resemble the Space Force, a new branch of the U.S. Armed Forces that Trump established in his first presidential term. The Space Force’s self-proclaimed mission is to secure American interests in space, which in practice has looked like managing space launches and acquiring weapons to prepare for space-based warfare. Considering the Trump administration’s eagerness to deploy AI across the U.S. military organizations, despite reported near-catastrophic calls due to hallucinations, the AI Force could perhaps include military AI among its areas of responsibility.
“We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!” Trump said in his vague explanation of the new initiative. “However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System.”
The tech industry was not informed prior to his announcement and are equally confused as well, per Politico.
Trump’s announcement comes as AI industry insiders and company executives themselves have been ringing alarm bells over the rapid trajectory of AI development. Earlier this month, a former Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, posted on social media saying that he had resigned and claimed that “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Just days later Coxon’s boss, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, published an essay warning that the current pace of AI development was too fast and urging the government to intervene to facilitate a slowdown. Competitors SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman voiced their agreement with Amodei’s analysis, while critics described the pleas as either covert attempts at scoring favorable regulation from Washington, or classic AI doomerism meant to stifle innovation.
Trump himself has argued that the whole AI is developing too fast; we need to slowdown argument is a hoax and he has referred to the steadily growing public scrutiny against unrestrained AI development and data center buildout as a “SICK conspiracy” that only benefits China. In the latest Truth Social post, he doubled down on his claims that the reported negative impacts AI data centers have on local communities are a farce, and that in reality they only lead to “Higher Salaries, Lower Taxes, and Safer Streets.”
But the public anxiety over AI development is far from quelled, which could have put extra pressure on the President to do something addressing the AI doom fears, or at least appear as if he is doing something, especially with the topic becoming a huge polling point in the lead up to a highly consequential round of midterm elections in November.
That effort might also include running PR on behalf of AI itself. Along with the AI Force announcement, the President also began leading an online poll on his Truth Social account over the weekend to rename “artificial intelligence.” He is down to these two options as of Sunday: Superior Intelligence (SI) or Extreme Intelligence (EI).