The tech industry is struggling to make sense of President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that he is creating an artificial intelligence task force and appointing a czar to oversee the administration’s approach to the technology.
Trump, in alengthy Truth Social poston Saturday morning, said he was forming the government body and would also soon name an AI czar to lead it. He offered few details, leaving members of the tech world unsure what the task force would do, who would be involved or how it would operate.
Four representatives for the sector, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told POLITICO that the industry was not widely informed of Trump’s decision prior to the Truth Social post.
“Nobody knows what the idea even is,” one of the people said. Another said that feedback on the idea was not widely solicited within the industry.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Several of those canvassed said they view the move as a response to growing public alarm at the developing technology’s potential risks. AI researchers at top AI labs in the past few weeks have issued stark warnings about the technology’s power to destroy humanity, while executives including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis have called for a slowdown so its risks can be adequately addressed.
“I think that he clearly feels pressure to say something, but he’s torn because he’s just spent the last few days saying that the whole thing is a hoax,” Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the progressive tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, said of Trump and his prior dismissal of AI doomsday scenarios
Since the departure of David Sacks, who stepped down as the Trump administration’s previous AI czar earlier this year, the White House has been “making up AI policy as it goes,” Kovacevich added. “I think it’s clear they’ve really missed the presence of an organized leader like David Sacks was.”
One of the tech industry representatives said they were confused about whether the task force would be charged with formulating more AI regulations or recommending policies that would further stimulate the tech’s development.
Taylor Barkley, director of federal government affairs at the industry-aligned Abundance Institute, is eyeing it as a way to solidify a light-touch government approach to the technology he says will foster innovation.
“Any AI Force or AI Czar should have one job: keep the field open so entrepreneurs at every scale can compete, free from onerous regulation,” he told POLITICO. “Existing criminal and civil law can handle bad actors. New permission regimes will stifle the very activity America needs most.”
Trump’s post Saturday showed a clear desire to keep the industry booming: “We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry. Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!”
Trump’s comparison of the new AI task force to Space Force led at least one tech industry representative to speculate that the proposal could be led by the Pentagon. “Rather than use civilian agencies to regulate it, use the Pentagon to try and dominate it,” they said.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and NVIDIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposal.
John Hewitt Jones contributed to this report.
