Jay Clayton, Donald Trump's Expected AI Czar, Says AI Is a Security Issue

Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence whom President Donald Trump is expected to name as the White House's AI czar, said Wednesday that the administration would take a "whole-of-government approach" to regulating the technology.

"Superintelligence is a national security issue," Clayton said in a CNBC interview. The administration has formally adopted that term for AI, NBC News reported, and a source told the network that Trump will most likely announce the pick on social media as soon as Friday.

Why it matters

Clayton, who runs 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, would keep that job while taking on the AI role. Trump has put beating China and AI-driven economic gains ahead of public concerns, according to CNN.

Key points

• Trump is likely to tap Clayton, the nation's spy chief, for the AI post, possibly as soon as Friday.
• Clayton would keep his intelligence post and has called superintelligence a national security issue.
• A White House official called reports of the pick "baseless speculation."

Jay Clayton's path from the SEC to the spy agencies

CBS News first reported that Clayton was the likely pick. Two sources told CNN that Clayton would stay on as director of national intelligence.

A White House official said the president would announce any personnel decision himself. "Any reporting until then is baseless speculation," the official said.

Clayton was the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term. He was confirmed in July and took over the intelligence job in August.

Tulsi Gabbard resigned the post in May, citing her husband's diagnosis of "an extremely rare form of bone cancer," The Independent reported.

At his confirmation hearing, Clayton called AI a "game changer" and "not only an opportunity but a threat."

Donald Trump's AI czar search and the White House summit

Trump announced the AI czar post last month on social media: "Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" On Tuesday he told reporters he was "very close to making a decision."

Venture capitalist David Sacks held the role until March. He co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Clayton and Sacks both attended Tuesday's White House meeting, where OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceXAI agreed to internal controls and outside audits of their models. Trump called the deal "morally binding."

Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman back "pacing the frontier" of AI, while Sacks and Nvidia's Jensen Huang call some warnings overblown, CBS News reported. That split runs through the wider fight over AI's risks. Trump has called fears about AI a "hoax."

Update: This story now leads with Clayton's CNBC remarks on superintelligence and adds NBC News' reporting on the likely social media announcement and The Independent's account of Gabbard's resignation.