Trump likely to pick Jay Clayton for AI czar, sources say

Jay Clayton will likely be the White House’s pick for AI czar, and the Trump administration has been discussing having him remain in his current role as director of national intelligence, according to sources briefed on the matter. 

President Trump is expected to make the final decision shortly, three of the sources said.

Mr. Trump announced plans to name an AI czar last month, writing on social media: “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” The posting comes amid growing debate over how to manage the risks and potential of ever-more-powerful AI technology. The leaders of the country’s top AI firms met at the White House on Tuesday to sign a set of voluntary safety standards.

Shortly after that meeting, Mr. Trump told reporters he planned to name an AI czar within three or four days. “We have somebody that’s extraordinary,” he said.

Asked for comment, a White House official told CBS News: “Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation.”

The Senate confirmed Clayton as director of national intelligence in July. A lawyer by trade, he previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission for most of Mr. Trump’s first term.

Early in his second term, Mr. Trump named venture capitalist David Sacks as cryptocurrency and AI czar. Sacks stepped down earlier this year but continued to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Clayton will take on an AI-focused role as political and industry leaders discuss whether — and how — the technology should be regulated.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who run two of the country’s leading AI firms, have backed the idea of “pacing the frontier” of AI development in order to better manage its risks. Some lawmakers have pushed for legal guardrails on AI. But other major industry players, like Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have argued some of the grave warnings about the threats AI could pose to humanity are overblown.

Mr. Trump is skeptical of tighter AI regulations, touting the economic benefits of the technology — which he calls “Super Intelligence” — and arguing a slowdown could give Chinese AI labs an edge. He says federal law enforcement can deal with bad actors.

During Tuesday’s White House summit, the president and the leaders of some of the country’s largest AI firms — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI — committed to several layers of internal controls and external audits to ensure their AI models are working as intended.

Mr. Trump called the agreement “morally binding” and “almost like a constitution.”

“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police,” he said shortly after meeting with AI executives.