Trump to name intelligence chief Clayton as AI tsar: Reports

United States President Donald Trump is expected to select spy chief Jay Clayton to oversee development of the nation’s artificial intelligence industry, according to multiple news reports.

CNN, CBS and Axios reported Trump is set to name the director of national intelligence (DNI) as his pick for so-called “AI tsar”. The decision could be announced as early as Friday.

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Amid increasing calls for the government to intervene in the rapidly developing technology, Trump last month announced on social media that he would be naming a new AI tsar. “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” he wrote.

Trump already had one AI tsar, venture capitalist David Sacks. He resigned earlier this year and became an external adviser to the president.

Clayton, who previously served as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was confirmed by the US Senate in July to oversee the nation’s spy agencies. He succeeded Bill Pulte, a controversial Trump loyalist who was appointed by the president as acting director of the US intelligence community.

It’s unclear whether Clayton would hold the role of AI tsar in addition to his duties as DNI.

“Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation,” a White House official told Al Jazeera.

Clayton’s possible selection comes on the heels of warnings from multiple AI researchers that the technology could kill humans within a decade.

Anthropic’s problems

It also comes as AI giant Anthropic prepares for what is expected to be a blockbuster initial public offering (IPO), aimed for next month, and has warned that US government attitudes towards the company could impact its business.

According to an IPO prospectus seen by the Reuters news agency, the AI company said the Trump administration’s attacks and lawsuits on its technology could hurt relationships with customers and other government partners. The filing also revealed that AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity”.

A federal appeals court ruled last week that the US government could blacklist Anthropic from US Department of Defense contracts. The court said that the agency “had ample support for its conclusion” that the company’s products pose a supply chain risk to the Pentagon and its contractors due to code that prevents them from performing certain tasks. Anthropic has said it will not allow its technology to be used for autonomous weapons or surveillance.

Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei and Clayton attended Tuesday’s AI meeting at the White House. Clayton was also a guest at last month’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Last month, Trump lashed out at Amodei over his plea for an AI slowdown, calling fears of the technology a “hoax” and a “scam”. Trump also blasted the public backlash to data centres.

Amid the public pushback against the facilities, Amazon announced on Friday that it is investing $1bn over the next five years into US communities where it operates them. Matt Garman, the CEO of the company’s cloud computing business, wrote in a blog post that the money would go towards education, job training, water preservation projects and other local priorities.