Trump expected to name intelligence chief Jay Clayton AI czar

President Donald Trump is expected to name Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as his White House artificial intelligence czar, according to people familiar with the discussions, giving the nation’s intelligence chief a second role as the administration weighs how to manage increasingly powerful AI.

Clayton would remain director of national intelligence while taking on the AI portfolio, CBS News and NBC News reported. NBC News, citing a source familiar with the matter, said Trump could announce the choice on social media as early as Friday. CBS News said three sources expected a final decision shortly.

The White House would not confirm the reports. “Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation,” an official told both outlets.

Trump said last month that he planned to appoint an AI czar, writing on social media: “Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” After meeting technology executives at the White House on Tuesday, he told reporters an announcement would come within three or four days. “We have somebody that’s extraordinary,” he said.

Clayton attended Tuesday’s meeting, NBC News reported. In a CNBC interview Wednesday, he said the administration would take a “whole-of-government approach” to regulating AI. “Superintelligence is a national security issue,” he said. “That was something that was recognized yesterday by not just the industry leaders, but everybody in the room.”

At the White House meeting, leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI agreed to voluntary safety standards that include internal controls and external audits intended to ensure their AI models work as intended, according to CBS News. Trump called the agreement “morally binding” and “almost like a constitution.”

“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing, and they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump said afterward. He also told reporters that the models are complex and that he believes they will be used for good. When they are not, he said, authorities will be able to catch those responsible.

The prospective appointment comes amid a debate over AI’s risks and the rules that should govern its development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have backed “pacing the frontier” of AI development to better manage its risks, CBS News reported. Some lawmakers have sought legal guardrails, while former AI adviser David Sacks and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have argued that some warnings about threats to humanity are overblown, according to CBS News.

Trump has resisted tighter AI restrictions, arguing that the technology offers economic benefits and that slowing development could give Chinese AI labs an advantage. He has said federal law enforcement can address bad actors.

The Senate confirmed Clayton as intelligence director in July; he took over the role in August. A lawyer, he previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during much of Trump’s first term. Sacks, who held the administration’s AI and cryptocurrency advisory role from January 2025 through March of this year, remains co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.