Washington Assembles Its “Super Intelligence Force” to Win the AI Race

The US “Super Intelligence Force” is designed to accelerate the country’s AI race rather than primarily restrain the industry.

• Launched by Donald Trump on 4 October, the task force brings together several federal departments and leading AI companies to coordinate research, assess risks and keep the US ahead of China.
• The SIF is chaired by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, with FTC chair Andrew Ferguson, Pentagon research chief Emil Michael and personnel director Scott Kupor as vice chairs.
• It will oversee risks including cyber-attacks, biological threats and hostile-state misuse, while enforcing a voluntary accord signed by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and SpaceX covering safety checks, independent assessments and board oversight.
• The task force must deliver policy proposals within 120 days, by early 2027, and its charter warns against overregulation and regulatory capture, supporting continued spending on data centres and chips.
• Chinese open-source AI models reportedly cost one sixth to one tenth as much to run as comparable US systems, while Google DeepMind’s chief says China is only months behind.

Takeaway: Washington is unlikely to slow AI research because the perceived cost of losing the race to Beijing is too high, although the reliance on voluntary company self-policing limits the SIF’s role as an independent safety watchdog.