Trump Announces an ‘AI Force’ and an AI Czar, Pushing Back Against Calls to Slow the Industry

On Saturday the White House got another headline‑making announcement, this time from former President Donald Trump. He said he will set up an “AI Force,” a unit that – in his words – will keep an eye on the fast‑moving artificial‑intelligence sector and step in when things go awry.

Trump didn’t stop there. In a post on Truth Social he promised an AI czar, likening the new team to the Space Force he launched during his first term. “We will not in any way hinder or stifle the growth of this incredible industry,” he wrote. “Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!”

The president also brushed off recent warnings that AI development is outpacing safety safeguards. He called those calls “politically driven hoaxes” and insisted the United States will stay ahead of China and the rest of the world.

What’s curious is his claim that existing criminal and civil courts can already handle any misbehavior. In other words, the AI Force would act more like a watchdog than a police force, relying on the traditional justice system to punish wrongdoing.

Trump’s optimism comes at a time when the tech community is quietly throttling back. Last week Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei announced a new safety protocol that gives independent reviewers permanent, employee‑level access to the company’s models – a clear signal that industry insiders are worried about the speed of progress.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SpaceX AI chief Elon Musk and DeepMind co‑founder Demis Hassabis have all echoed the same sentiment, hinting at a broader pact to slow AI’s race to ever‑more powerful systems.

The backlash isn’t just academic. A former Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned on the premise that both his former employer and OpenAI were “gambling with our lives” by pushing toward self‑improving superintelligence. Anthropic’s own alignment lead, Evan Hubinger, replied that they truly believe “AI could kill all humans.”

Legal pressure is mounting, too. A lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California accuses several AI firms of violating antitrust law by colluding on slowdown measures – a claim that could force the industry’s hand while also underscoring the government’s uneasy relationship with the sector.

Meanwhile, the administration’s own agencies are sending mixed signals. The Commerce Department briefly placed export restrictions on Anthropic’s most advanced models, and the Defense Department tried – unsuccessfully – to blacklist the same company as a supply‑chain risk.

In the background, David Sacks, who served as Trump’s AI and crypto czar early in his second term, has moved to co‑chair the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Whether his new role will shape the promised AI Force remains to be seen.

All told, Trump’s proclamation adds a bold political twist to an already volatile debate. The administration says it will let the courts deal with bad actors, while industry leaders are voluntarily dialing back their own ambitions. How the AI Force will fit into that puzzle – or whether it will simply echo the Space Force’s flamboyant start – is a question that will probably dominate the next few months of policy talk.