The White House’s artificial intelligence task force formally adopted its charter on Thursday, starting a 120-day countdown to deliver recommendations on how much authority the federal government should exercise over the technology.
Following its first official meeting, the panel voted to commission a report from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology examining AI risk across three areas: cybersecurity and protection of critical infrastructure, biosecurity and dual-use applications, and controlling and holding accountable the models themselves, according to Semafor.
A White House official said the task force intends to consult beyond government ranks as it carries out this work, reaching out to frontier model developers and other AI companies, consumer protection groups, civil liberties advocates, industry representatives, and federal and state law enforcement.
Who’s Running What
The task force has already stood up a working group to put into effect the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, the pact signed this month by chief executives of major AI companies. That effort is led by Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who chairs the full task force, working alongside National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
Defense Undersecretary Emil Michael, a vice chair of the panel, has been tasked with building protocols requiring AI labs to report breaches, hacks, and other cyber incidents to the government, and will serve as the Pentagon’s point of contact with frontier labs on longer-term coordination.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson will head a law enforcement and consumer protection committee that includes the Justice Department. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor will oversee critical-infrastructure protection work and, together with the Labor Department, study how AI is affecting the American workforce.
Other members of the task force include Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and her deputy, Richard Walters.
Export Controls on the Table
A White House official told Semafor that export controls remain one option under consideration. The Commerce Department already imposed such controls, temporarily, on Anthropic after the company refused to give the government unrestricted access to its models.
The task force’s work builds on President Donald Trump’s September 29 executive order directing federal agencies to swap out the term “artificial intelligence” for “super intelligence.” Trump signed that order the same day roughly two dozen tech executives attended a White House luncheon, where six frontier AI firms signed the voluntary Accord the president described as “morally binding.”
Clayton, a former SEC chairman confirmed as director of national intelligence over the summer, told the Wall Street Journal that staying ahead of China is the administration’s central concern.
“The risk of not being first is high,” Clayton said.
For a public already wary of concentrated power over a fast-moving technology, the task force’s next four months will determine whether Washington settles on a light regulatory touch, a heavier hand built around export controls and mandatory breach reporting, or something in between.
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