President Trump has named Jay Clayton as the White House AI czar and charged him to lead a newly formed “Super Intelligence Force.” The appointment was announced on October 3, 2026; the task force has 120 days to map AI risks and opportunities and to define Washington’s role in maintaining U.S. leadership in super intelligence. Clayton will retain his role as Director of National Intelligence, a post confirmed by the Senate in a 51–47 vote on July 28, 2026.
The panel includes high-profile officials such as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and is expected to deliver a report assessing strategic priorities. The administration’s September 29, 2026 meeting with industry leaders led to a voluntary “White House Accord on Super Intelligence,” encouraging companies to adopt internal safeguards; officials say the task force will strengthen existing incident-reporting mechanisms rather than impose new regulations.
Clayton’s nomination has unsettled parts of the crypto community because of his regulatory record: as SEC chair he oversaw the agency’s December 2020 lawsuit against Ripple alleging $1.3 billion in unregistered securities sales, with $728.9 million in direct institutional sales later identified as unregistered offerings. The case closed in August 2025 with a $125 million penalty and left a permanent injunction restricting certain institutional XRP sales. That litigation produced a two-and-a-half-year delisting and delayed XRP’s path to spot ETFs until November 2025, facts that fuel concern about how Clayton might approach policy in adjacent domains like AI.
Additional appointments and Clayton's record
New reports confirm Jay Clayton will lead the Super Intelligence Force while remaining Director of National Intelligence. The filings add named participants to the group beyond earlier mentions, including the FTC chair, Emil Michael for research and engineering under the War office, and Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor, and say the panel will coordinate federal engagement with consumers, public-interest groups and AI companies.
The coverage also reiterates Clayton’s crypto track record: he brought some 57 crypto cases, sued Ripple in December 2020 over XRP, later advised One River and Fireblocks, and as interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan oversaw the prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm.