Crypto · updated 1h ago · 3 min read
Trump Expected To Appoint Jay Clayton As White House AI Czar
Clayton would oversee AI policy while remaining DNI. Announcement could come as early as Friday.
35 outlets told this the same way.
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11 of 12 outlets skipped it: SEC regulation-by-enforcement history and Ripple case under Clayton.
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AI czar pick
US President Donald Trump is expected to appoint Jay Clayton, the Director of National Intelligence, as the White House AI czar, according to multiple reports cited by CNN and other media.
A White House official told CNN that “Any personnel announcement will be announced directly by the President. Any reporting until then is baseless speculation.”
Trump had already posted on Truth Social that he was forming an “AI Force” and would announce an “AI czar” in the near future, and the reports say Clayton could be asked to oversee AI innovation and development along with “self policing” tech CEOs.
The group called ‘Super Intelligence Force’ will have 120 days to research and report on the risks and opportunities of AI and offer recommendations on the US government’s responsibilities regarding the technology.
Clayton succeeds venture capitalist David Sacks, who resigned as AI and crypto czar in March this year.
Clayton’s background
Clayton’s role as AI czar would come as safety concerns reach “a fever pitch,” driven by hacking incidents involving so-called ‘rogue’ AI agents and doomsday warnings from AI researchers. Clayton said, “The president asked that a group be put together that was going to ensure exactly what he said, which is that we stay the leaders in superintelligence, and that the interests of the American people are put first,” as reported by WSJ. The US Senate confirmed Clayton as Director of National Intelligence in July, and Clayton previously worked as a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and as chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Clayton led the SEC during Trump’s first term and served as interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the Senate confirmed Clayton in July to lead the intelligence community. Clayton told CNN during his confirmation hearing that the technology is a “game changer” and that it’s “not only an opportunity but a threat.”
Crypto and governance
Clayton’s appointment came as part of a broader push, and Trump opposed regulation while AI industry leaders including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called for federal guardrails on frontier AI models. Trump gathered AI and technology chiefs at the White House to sign a commitment to “self-police” their companies’ AI models and development, and a White House official dismissed the reports as speculation until a direct announcement. Clayton’s SEC record from 2017 to 2020 began what bitcoin.es described as “enforcement-by-enforcement” regulation in the crypto sector, and the SEC’s actions included a case against Telegram and its Ton token project that ended with the company abandoning plans to launch the cryptocurrency.
Clayton’s SEC tenure involved questioning the classification of various tokens as securities, and supporters pointed to his later openness toward Bitcoin as an asset that does not necessarily constitute a security. Clayton’s possible return to a power role reopens debate over whether US policy will be reactive or proactive for crypto, while bitcoin.es tied the AI czar prospect to the “intersection of AI and blockchain” and the regulatory questions it could raise.