‘Bigger than the Industrial Revolution’: Trump unveils new ‘Super Intelligence Force’

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump announced a new federal “Super Intelligence Force” on Truth Social Sunday, October 4, five days after urging leading AI companies to rely on “self-policing.”

The force will coordinate the federal government’s engagement with AI companies, consumers, public interest groups and critical infrastructure providers.

In the same post, Trump named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as his AI czar, days after meeting top AI executives at the White House.

Trump creates a federal force for Super Intelligence

Trump said the Super Intelligence Force, or SIF, will coordinate the federal government’s effort to keep the United States leading in “Super Intelligence,” a term his administration formally adopted for government record-keeping.

He said the technology is considered by many to be “bigger than the Industrial Revolution and the Internet” and said the force would “protect the interests, and improve the lives, of all Americans.”

The force will be led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering and Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael, and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor.

Trump said the group will report to him and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. 

Its work will include coordinating the federal government’s engagement with “Consumers, Public Interest Groups, Religious Organizations, Critical Infrastructure Providers, and Super Intelligence Companies.”

President Trump had pushed AI companies to police themselves

The new federal structure follows Trump’s September 29 White House meeting with AI leaders, when he argued against government intervention and promoted voluntary safeguards.

“There’s a belief that there should be tremendous self-regulation,” Trump said after meeting the executives," NPR cited. 

He said he was seeing “tremendous self-policing” and that the companies understood they had to police themselves.

Trump repeatedly praised the executives behind the technology, saying AI would drive “unbelievable growth.” 

He also pointed to rising investment in data centers and computing equipment, which has helped fuel economic activity and lift the stock market.

Trump and executives including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and xAI founder Elon Musk signed a “morally binding” accord.

The accord called for robust internal controls, independent external audits and board committees to review reports. 

It also said, “Over time, it may make sense to codify these steps into laws and regulations.”

AI leaders warned risks remain unresolved

The accord included voluntary measures to address AI risks, but Amodei said some key questions remained unsettled. 

“The technology has very real risks,” he said, adding that “the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion,” the outlet cited.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the accord “a start,” while Amodei said progress had been made toward the United States winning AI safely.

Trump had also said the federal government would not limit AI development or support calls for “guardrails” or other restrictions, saying, “We can’t stifle it, and we’re leading by a lot,” as per the outlet. 

Trump, meanwhile, framed AI development as a global contest between the United States and China, saying there would be a winner and a loser, with no “second place.”