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Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton as new AI czar: Reports
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President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, the current US director of national intelligence, as the country's new artificial intelligence czar, according to reports from CNN and other outlets published Friday, which cited unidentified sources. CBS News first identified Clayton as the frontrunner for the position. A White House official, however, told CBS that any announcement would come directly from the president and dismissed the reports as speculation. Sources told CNN that Clayton is expected to remain in his role leading the intelligence community while taking on the AI portfolio.
The appointment would follow Trump's announcement of plans to create an "AI Force" modeled after the Space Force and to install an artificial intelligence czar, first reported on September 20. On Truth Social, the president said the new project would manage the fast-growing AI sector without imposing regulations that could slow innovation. Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term and also served as interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The Senate confirmed him in July to lead the intelligence community.
During his confirmation hearing, Clayton described AI as a "game changer" that represents "not only an opportunity but a threat," according to CNN. The expected appointment comes amid heightened debate over how quickly AI systems should be developed. On Tuesday, Trump gathered AI and technology chiefs at the White House to sign a commitment to "self-police" their companies' AI models and development.
The move also follows public warnings about AI's potential dangers. On September 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a three-step proposal to pace AI development, arguing that unchecked progress might "outrun our ability to understand and control these systems." Anthropic subsequently selected Accenture as an embedded evaluator to help moderate that pace, advancing the first step of Amodei's plan.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded positively to Amodei's proposal, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pushed back, arguing such regulation was unnecessary. Clayton would replace a role structure previously held by venture capitalist David Sacks, who wrapped up a 130-day tenure as crypto and AI czar in March under rules limiting special government employees to 130 days within a 12-month period. Sacks told Bloomberg he would continue making policy recommendations as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The dual mandate, combining national intelligence leadership with AI oversight, signals how the administration intends to balance security concerns against its stated goal of avoiding new regulation. It also places a key Trump-era financial regulator at the center of the government's approach to an industry valued at hundreds of billions of dollars.
