The unit is tasked with ensuring that the technology is not “manipulated by bad actors at home or abroad.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just announced the creation of something called the Super Intelligence Task Force, also called the DOJ-SITF. The unit is tasked with making sure that US-based artificial intelligence technology isn’t compromised by “foreign state and state-sponsored actors, transnational criminal organizations and individual or corporate actors engaged in fraud.”
It’s being led by Stanley Woodward and Stephen Weiss, two people who report to Attorney General Todd Blanche. I bring Blanche up because he has been accusedof fraud on severaloccasions, onceill investigate it in the AI sector
“SI development will continue to be powered by American innovators,” Blanche said in a press release announcing the unit. “The SI Task Force at the Department of Justice will facilitate our partnership with SI Force Chair Jay Clayton as we ensure critical SI technologies serve the American people and are not manipulated by bad actors at home or abroad.”
That brings us to the renamed elephant in the room. The administration is still running full-steam ahead with this whole “super intelligence” thing. This seemed ridiculous several weeks ago when President Trump first coined the term, being as how the entire world had been calling it artificial intelligence for years and years.
Trump has since said he is banning the term “artificial intelligence” after becoming angry when The Wall Street Journal didn’t immediately adopt his preferred nomenclature. Most publications have refused to jump on board here, primarily because it’s needless and confusing. The rest of the world calls it AI so why muck things up?
That leads us to our beloved tech CEOs. These people have proven they will happily bow to Trump to protect their business interests. Google has followed the president down the Lake America and Gulf of America rabbit holes. Former Apple CEO Tim Cook gave him a fancy gold statue for no real reason. Meta almost immediately ended all DEI initiatives when he was elected and abandoned third-party fact-checking. All of these companies also donated a ton of money to that ballroom we all so desperately want.
But will they continue to do whatever he asks, no matter how ridiculous, after the midterms? Will they use the term SI? That remains to be seen. These poor billionaires and their companies are in something of a pickle right now. They still need Trump to continue racking up massive government contracts.
However, newly-elected Democrat majorities are likely to start investigations into what these companies were up to throughout the past two years. Cozying up to the president right now could be a bad look.
