Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton as new AI czar: Reports
President Donald Trump is reportedly set to name Jay Clayton, the current director of national intelligence, as a new presidential ‘AI czar,’ media outlets including CNN and CBS reported. The role would potentially add oversight of AI innovation and development without imposing new regulatory burdens, and Clayton may retain his DNI post while taking on the AI portfolio.
Why It Matters
Placing a senior intelligence official in charge of coordinating AI policy signals the administration’s intent to prioritize oversight of rapidly advancing AI technologies while relying on industry commitments to self-regulate, a major choice that could shape U.S. policy and industry behavior around AI development.
Key Facts
- Reported appointee: Jay Clayton
- Current role: U.S. Director of National Intelligence (confirmed by Senate in July)
- Previous roles: Former SEC chair; interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
- Sources reporting appointment: CNN and CBS (citing unidentified sources); Cointelegraph earlier reported plans for an 'AI Force' and AI czar
- White House statement to CBS: Any announcement would come directly from the president; White House official called reports speculation (per CBS)
Multiple U.S. media outlets reported that President Donald Trump plans to appoint Jay Clayton as a national AI czar. Clayton currently serves as director of national intelligence, a position to which the Senate confirmed him in July, and sources say he may keep that post while taking on responsibility for coordinating AI policy and development. The reported initiative builds on earlier statements from the administration about creating an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and steering AI growth without adding regulations that could impede innovation, according to prior reporting by Cointelegraph and the president’s own posts on Truth Social. The plan follows public concerns about AI risks raised by industry figures and researchers. Industry responses to calls for pacing AI development have varied. Cointelegraph described a proposal by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow development in three steps; Anthropic has since engaged Accenture as an embedded evaluator to help moderate its development pace. Some technology executives, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Elon Musk, voiced support for Amodei’s ideas, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued formal regulation was unnecessary. The administration has also pursued voluntary commitments from companies: Trump recently convened AI and technology leaders at the White House to sign pledges to “self-police” their AI models and development paths, according to Cointelegraph. A CBS report named Clayton as the frontrunner for the AI role, but a White House official told CBS that any official announcement would be made by the president, labeling current reports as speculative.
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Original source: Cointelegraph