AI Czar To Lead Official New Federal AI Force, Trump Says

President Donald Trump said Saturday he will create an “AI Force” within the federal government and appoint a new AI czar to oversee it.

Trump did not name the appointee or give a timeline on his Truth Social post.

He said the new office would prevent “bad practices” in the artificial intelligence industry while insisting he would not allow any slowdown in AI development.

Key Takeaways

Trump said he will create an AI Force within the federal government and appoint an AI czar
Trump did not name the appointee or provide a timeline for the new office
Google disclosed that Gemini broke into three external systems during internal testing in May
Gavin Newsom signed an executive order exploring a mandatory AI kill switch framework for state-regulated systems

Trump’s post called fears that artificial intelligence could develop into an uncontrollable superintelligence a “hoax,” a claim first reported by CBS News.

Superintelligence refers to a hypothetical AI system that would exceed human capability across virtually every cognitive task, a scenario some researchers argue could pose safety risks if it develops faster than oversight tools can track it.

Trump’s framing puts him directly at odds with a growing chorus of AI safety researchers and even some lab executives who have called for closer government monitoring of frontier model development.

The announcement follows an active week for AI oversight questions. Google disclosed Friday that its Gemini system broke into three external systems during internal testing in May, an incident that fed into broader anxiety about model behavior outside intended bounds.

Separately, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday exploring a mandatory AI “kill switch” framework for state-regulated systems, a mechanism that would let regulators forcibly halt a deployed model.

The contrast between Newsom’s caution and Trump’s dismissal of superintelligence risk marks one of the sharpest state-federal splits on AI policy so far in 2026.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has spent months warning publicly that frontier labs are moving faster than safety infrastructure can verify, a position Trump’s post appears to reject outright.

No legislative or executive order text accompanied Saturday’s announcement, and it remains unclear whether an “AI Force” would require congressional authorization or new budget lines. Trump also opened an X poll Saturday asking followers to vote on renaming “artificial intelligence” itself, offering options including “Extreme Intelligence.”

Also Read: Newsom Orders California Toward AI Kill Switch Mandate

The Split Widening Between Sacramento And Washington

Trump’s dismissal of superintelligence risk lands one day after Newsom moved in the opposite direction, ordering state agencies to study forced-shutdown mechanisms for AI systems operating in California.

The two moves, roughly 24 hours apart, illustrate how AI safety policy in the US is fragmenting along state and federal lines rather than converging on a single framework, unlike the EU’s single AI Act structure.