President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring executive agencies to replace the term artificial intelligence with super intelligence
and appointed National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton to lead a new AI task force following a White House meeting with technology executives.
Trump signed the order following a gathering with executives from the industry’s firms, arriving alongside a voluntary safety agreement signed by tech leaders at the White House.
Trump said the agreement was almost like a constitution, in a sense
, adding that the greatest people in the world signed it, and I signed it as president
.
Alongside the executive order, Trump published a document on Truth Social, which includes clauses stating that every company will implement four layers of control and audit and that companies should implement strong internal control mechanisms to monitor the capabilities of their models and their alignment with the established goals and principles.
Jay Clayton Leads The New Super Intelligence Task Force
National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton will head the newly formed Super Intelligence Task Force to oversee federal policy under the newly preferred terminology, giving the body 120 days to report on risks, opportunities, and the proper scope of federal involvement according to administration announcements. Clayton brings a deep Wall Street background to the role, having led the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020 before serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and taking over the intelligence community last summer. He will serve as the administration’s second AI czar, following venture capitalist David Sachs, who concluded his tenure in March.
The task force reports directly to the president and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. Clayton will work alongside three vice chairs: Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, and Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael.
Clayton noted that the risk of failing to lead in the domain is high, adding that a lack of leadership increases both identified and unidentified risks, particularly from rivals, and that securing first place will enable the nation to better address these threats for American citizens.
White House Voluntary Safety Charter Draws Industry Signatories
Executives from major artificial intelligence firms signed a voluntary safety agreement at the White House following the leadership appointments.
Estimates presented during the meeting indicated that capital was concentrated among leaders such as Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Huang. The technology leaders and the president signed an agreement defined by Trump as morally binding and functioning as a sort of protection based on internal controls, external audits by third parties, and reporting findings to their boards of directors.
Balancing Innovation Against Global Competition and Public Concern
Administration officials have emphasized that federal policy will avoid heavy-handed restrictions that could disadvantage American firms in the global technology race. Speaker Johnson described the document as a statement of principles with voluntary commitments from the industry. Trump stated he is not interested in imposing federal restrictions on the developments of AI companies, noting that such a move could slow down American companies and that emphasis should be placed on development to maintain competitiveness against China. Trump previously dismissed severe warnings about the technology as a hoax.
The newly empowered task force has until early February 2027 to deliver its findings and recommendations to the president and White House chief of staff marking the administration’s first formal roadmap for an industry that has largely operated under self-governing standards.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson oversees an agency that has investigated technology sector competition, including inquiries in 2024 into investments by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google in AI model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic to determine whether those partnerships restrict market competition.
Market observers noted that Washington’s regulatory debates unfold against massive infrastructure investments by tech giants committing hundreds of billions of dollars annually to data centers, with AI-linked stocks performing strongly through the end of the trading week.