Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday that he will stand up an ‘AI Force’ and name an AI czar. The model is the Space Force from his first term. What the outfit would do, what it would cost and where in the federal government it would sit — none of that is in the post.
What the post says
‘We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry,’ Trump wrote. ‘Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!’ Anyone behaving ‘BAD’ would be dealt with through existing criminal and civil law. He lumped worries about the technology running out of control together with the climate debate and his two impeachments: all a hoax. ‘The robots will not be taking over.’ He also predicted AI would end up as a quarter of the US economy, bigger than the internet.
The job has been empty since March
David Sacks gave up the AI czar role in March. He still advises the president from outside and chairs the science council PCAST; these days he calls the safety debate a panic. Trump gave no hint who might follow — he said he is looking for a ‘high IQ individual’. No timeline either, and nothing on whether Congress gets a say in the ‘AI Force’.
The polling runs the other way
Since Dario Amodei’s September 12 essay, the big labs have been arguing about pace in public. Amodei wants to slow down, Sam Altman and Elon Musk agreed, and Evan Hubinger, who runs alignment science at Anthropic, put it like this: ‘we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!’ Trump’s answer is a force whose job he never describes. That fits the pattern: a week ago he said the real safeguard against the risks is a president with a high IQ.
He is fairly alone with that view. 61 percent of Americans oppose building AI data centers, and 63 percent see a moderate to significant risk that AI wipes out humanity. A government that calls worries of that size a hoax has two options: it turns out to be right, or it ends up with no answer at all. A force without a mission is not one.