Trump vows AI Force and new czar

President Donald Trump said Saturday he will create an “AI Force” and appoint a new artificial intelligence czar, pledging not to slow the technology’s growth as researchers, lawmakers and state officials intensify warnings about its risks.

In a Truth Social post, Trump rejected concerns that advanced AI could become a superintelligence posing a threat to humanity, calling such fears a hoax. He said the United States should foster the industry’s growth while using the existing legal system to police wrongdoing.

“We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows! However, we will also be looking for BAD, and we can do that, very easily, with our already existing Criminal and Civil Justice System,” Trump wrote. “For this purpose, I am forming the AI Force, much like I did Space Force.”

Trump did not name an appointee for the AI czar role, but said “only High I.Q. individuals need apply,” NBC News reported. The White House did not immediately provide more details on the new initiative.

The president described AI as “the next Industrial Revolution, or Internet,” saying it would be “even larger and more impactful, possibly as much as 25% of our Country’s GDP.” He has repeatedly argued that the United States must beat China in the AI race, saying over the past week, “Whoever wins AI wins,” according to NBC News.

Trump’s announcement follows renewed warnings from some leading figures in the field. Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel laureate widely known as the “godfather of AI,” told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing this week that Congress has “maybe a year” to regulate the industry, NBC News reported.

On Sept. 8, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that Anthropic and OpenAI are “gambling with our lives” by developing self-improving “superintelligence,” CBS News reported. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has urged the industry to slow development, told CBS News “Sunday Morning” that “there are real dangers” with AI and that the “industry lied to people about the fact that this technology had risks.”

Trump has appeared unmoved by such warnings. NBC News reported that he mounted a broad defense of the technology in multiple social media posts and called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang while Huang was onstage at an industry summit to discuss the issue.

The administration previously had an AI and cryptocurrency czar, David Sacks, whom Trump appointed in December 2024 as the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Sacks said in March 2026 that his time as a special government employee was up. NBC News reported that he has since taken an advisory role in the administration and is expected to attend Trump’s state dinner with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

In an interview with CBS News last week, Sacks said he believes fears about AI’s potential threat to humanity are overblown and that development should continue, though caution is warranted.

Congress has considered AI legislation in recent years, but those efforts have not advanced. State officials have also moved on the issue. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday seeking more industry oversight and urging a task force to consider requiring a kill switch. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has called for federal AI regulation, while Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger launched an AI task force and data center accountability plan aimed at addressing “growing concern and risks posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence.”

Former President Barack Obama also urged Democrats at a fundraiser last week to make AI planning a priority and said he would make it a central issue if he were running in 2028, NBC News reported.