President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, the US director of national intelligence, as the new AI czar, CNN and other media outlets reported Friday, citing unidentified sources. The reported pick would put a single official at the center of federal AI policy, a sector where industry executives remain divided over how much government oversight is warranted.

Trump's AI Force Plan

Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 20 that Trump planned to create an “AI Force” modeled after the Space Force and to appoint an artificial intelligence czar. In a post on Truth Social, the president said his new project would manage the fast-growing AI sector without adding regulations that could slow innovation.

Trump's actions followed several public warnings about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Industry Warnings and a White House Commitment

Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 12 that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had written a three-step proposal to pace the speed of AI development, warning that systems left unchecked might “outrun our ability to understand and control these systems.”

Anthropic subsequently said it had chosen Accenture as an embedded evaluator to help moderate the pace of AI development, moving ahead with the first step outlined in Amodei's proposal, Cointelegraph said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded positively to Amodei's proposal, although Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang did not, arguing that such regulation was not necessary.

On Tuesday, Trump gathered AI and technology chiefs at the White House to sign a new commitment to “self-police” their companies' AI models and development, according to CNN. That split among executives over pacing rules is the backdrop the new czar would step into.

Clayton Led SEC During Trump's First Term

CBS News first reported that Clayton was the frontrunner for the AI position. Still, a White House official told CBS that any such announcement would come directly from the president, dismissing the reports as speculation — meaning any official word would have to come from Trump himself.

Clayton led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump's first term and served as interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. According to the sources cited by CNN, he is also expected to remain in his current role as director of national intelligence. The Senate confirmed Clayton in July to lead the intelligence community. Holding both posts at once would place intelligence and AI policy under one official.

When asked about AI during his confirmation hearing, Clayton said the technology is a “game changer” and that it is “not only an opportunity but a threat,” according to CNN.

Sacks' 130-Day Tenure as Crypto and AI Czar

Cointelegraph reported in March that David Sacks, a venture capitalist who became a special White House official under Trump last year, had wrapped up a 130-day tenure as crypto and AI czar. Under US rules, such special government employees are limited to 130 days of work in a 12-month period. That cap ended Sacks' tenure in the combined role, leaving the czar position vacant heading into the Clayton reports.

“We've now used up that time,” Sacks told Bloomberg in March, noting that he would continue making policy recommendations across a broad range of tech industries as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.