US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would create an "AI Force" and appoint a new artificial intelligence czar to oversee the country's rapidly expanding AI industry, offering few details beyond a sweeping social media post on Truth Social. Trump framed the moves as a response to growing calls for regulation, vowing that his administration would "not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry" — one he predicted could eventually account for as much as 25 percent of US GDP.
Trump likened the proposed AI Force to his creation of the Space Force, the newest branch of the US military established during his first term. He said the new AI czar would be filled by "only High I.Q. individuals," but gave no timeline for the appointment. The announcement follows the resignation earlier this year of David Sacks, a venture capitalist who had served as Trump's first AI czar and now chairs the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sacks has described fears that AI could harm people as overblown, calling the debate "a panic."
The announcement comes amid an unusually turbulent week for the AI industry. A researcher at Anthropic — a leading US-based AI company — warned that there is a greater than 10 percent chance the technology "could kill all humans" within the next decade. That claim was echoed by calls for a slowdown from the heads of some of the world's largest AI firms, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Elon Musk. Separately, incidents in which AI systems conducted unauthorised cybersecurity attacks and were used for malicious activity have alarmed lawmakers. In the UK, a parliamentary committee has called for new legislation to address human rights risks posed by the technology, describing existing laws as ill-equipped for the challenge.
Trump has dismissed such warnings as a "hoax" and a "SICK conspiracy" designed to benefit China, framing regulation as a threat to American competitiveness. The creation of the AI Force appears in part designed to blunt criticism — including from within his own Republican Party — that his hands-off approach leaves the public unprotected. Florida's governor Ron DeSantis and Utah's governor Spencer Cox have both called for AI safety measures, while the US House of Representatives this week passed a bill by 417 votes to 3 aimed at reducing the impact of AI data centres on household electricity bills.
Trump's announcement is expected to set the tone for a summit next week in Washington with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the United States and China compete for global leadership in artificial intelligence. At the same time, grassroots opposition to AI infrastructure is growing, with residents in conservative-leaning communities pushing back against the spread of energy-intensive data centres — a tension that puts Trump's pro-growth stance at odds with the concerns of some of his own supporters.